Determinants of Labour Migration Decisions: The Case of East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Labour migration, both internal and international, represents a process by which labour withdraws from one sector to meet the manpower demand in another. In East Java, migration is a rural household strategy used to allocate labour resources among different areas to reduce risk and to increase income. This study aims to identify and analyze the determinants of migration decisions for rural-to-urban and international migration in the Malang district, East Java province. It helps to identify factors which are essential to the design of policies and programmes that aim to promote rural development. Labour migration is understood as movement outside the locality of residence lasting for more than six months; the destination effectively becomes the person’s new country of usual residence. Migration, when considered a component of a social group’s--family or household strategy can be largely explained by the theory of New Economics Labour Migration (NELM). The NELM conceptualizes a useful analytical tool that provides an understanding about how migration transforms the economies of families with migrants. According to theories of migration, such as theories of human capital, network theory and mobility transition theory, wage gap, income risk, education, gender, family, infrastructure, land access and credit access affect the migrant’s decision whether to migrate to cities, abroad or stay in their original region. These theories also explain that a migrant’s decision depends on human, social, and physical capital, networks, and government policy. External factors constitute socioeconomic and infrastructure factors, market access, water resources and land for agriculture, among others. The household allocates its resources to activities subject to external factors in order to generate the outcome that best suits its objectives. A survey was used as the main tool for primary data collection. It was carried out in the Malang district, East Java, Indonesia. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire as a means to interview several sampled observations. Hence, there is a disproportionate stratified sampling of 360 respondents across all 12 villages in the kecamatan (sub-district) Wagir, Malang District. The study also used secondary data which were collected from government institutions, particularly those possessing information regarding migration activities and the socio-economic status of villages in the region. The study used the Countryside Potency Data of East Java Province for 2006 which was issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics (7,677 villages). Probit and Tobit’s estimation were employed for providing evidence that several variables affect the decision of labour migration. MLA (Modern Language Assoc.) Syafitri, Wildan. Determinants of Labour Migration Decisions : The Case of East Java, Indonesia. kassel university press GmbH, 2012. APA (American Psychological Assoc.) Syafitri, W. (2012). Determinants of Labour Migration Decisions : The Case of East Java, Indonesia. Kassel: kassel university press GmbH.