Relation between residential building types and public health of migrant workers in industrial parks – Case studies from North Thang Long Industrial Park in Hanoi

After more than 20 years of industrial development, Vietnam has today over 300 industrial zones which attract millions of workers, and the majority of them are migrant workers from rural areas. Only 20% of these migrant workers have stable housing in concentrated construction project areas, while the rest reside in inns in the villages surrounding the industrial park. The evaluation of housing patterns and their impact on public health is necessary to draw some recommendations for more sustainable residential areas for workers. North Thang Long Industrial Park (NTLIP) has been selected as a case study. This is one of the few industrial parks in the North of the country that has simultaneously run two living models: project-based housing area and village-based rental housing. Research methods include quantitative statistics from sociological surveys as well as qualitative analysis and assessments of space. Preliminary results indicate that workers’ public health, including physical and mental health, social well-being is strongly correlated with housing quality and frequency of use of public spaces. Housing quality in the village is worse in many ways such as the living area is only 43%, unit amenities are only 54% compared to project-based housing area. The indicators for measuring frequency of use of public spaces by workers in village-based rental housing are also lower than in project-based housing area (only about 67%) because there is almost no land for public facilities in the village. Meanwhile, the use of public spaces in project- based housing area is not effective due to lack of utilities. Thus, to improve the health of workers, the research team gave some suggestions on improving the conditions of housing and public spaces in both two living models.