Immigration to Vietnam is the process by which people migrate to become Vietnamese residents. After the declaration of independence in 1945, immigration laws were modified to give the central government some control over immigrant workers arriving from nearby South Asian countries such as China (including Hong Kong), Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and Thailand. The Vietnam Immigration Department recently relaxed the strict controls on immigrant workers under Decree 21/2001/ND-CP, 34/2008/NĐ-CP and 46/2011/NĐ-CP.[1]