This paper explores the nature and role of non-farm employment, access to urban markets and migration in the livelihoods of the residents of two villages in Vietnam’s Red River delta. The case study province, Ha Nam, presents many of the challenges that the region and the nation will need to address in the near future. With growing population density and land scarcity, poverty reduction and local economic growth will increasingly depend on the development of non-farm employment in the micro-enterprise sector and on increased productivity and access to markets for agriculture. At the same time, migration (especially temporary movement) and remittances will continue to play a key role in the province’s economic, social and cultural transformations.