I was able to immigrate to Vietnam and set myself up without bribery. I've been here 10 years.
Mainly it was a matter of learning how to do the paperwork properly. Some people here pay bribes, others refuse to. I won't claim everything here is magically ideal, but as a general rule if you don't put yourself in situations where you need to pay bribes, you won't have to pay them. Mostly simple things like getting a driver's license if you're going to drive, maintaining your vehicle, and registering your current address.
Foreign residents here do have a bit of a reputation for poor compliance on stuff like this and doing everything the shadiest, laziest, and most fragile way possible.
This situation has improved in recent years -- I currently know maybe 4 or 5 other legal immigrants. We are a minority -- your assumptions about the behavior of the average person who moves here from North America are not entirely without merit, it's just not a universal truth.
Anyway I don't mean to argue with you -- just provide a hopefully interesting slice of life from a different part of the world.
