Using Photovoice to Explore Khmer Migrant Workers’ Lives During The COVID-19 Pandemic in Vietnam

Abstract

A qualitative study using the photovoice method examined how five Khmer migrant workers in Bi nh Duong, Vietnam, lived through the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants were asked to take photographs that told their own stories, and the images later served as touchstones for focus-group conversations and public displays. Researchers heard about heavy weight s on both body and mind, declining pay, and the loneliness that lockdowns enforced across the city. Relief groups led by local residents countered some of the hardship by handing out rice and planting a communal vegetable plot. Folk songs and traditional dances reappeared in the neighborhood before the calendars flipped to the new year, subtle signals that normalcy was edging back in. The findings call for government policies that genuinely include minority ethnic groups rather than treating them as an afterthought.