MIGRANTS IN NUSANTARA: INDONESIAN AND MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The process of human migration between Indonesia and Malaysia has been running for hundreds of years. Only in modern times have the problem becomes more complex. Migration not only provides benefits for both countries, as remittance and development, but it also has a negative impact and creates problems such as the abuse of migrant workers or increase of irregular migrants. This paper attempts to identify the driving forces of migration and explore different types of migration from Indonesia to Malaysia. It is found that there are five pull-push factors of migration, namely; economic, demographical, social, environmental and political factors. The economic and demographical factors become the main causes of migration in the form of workers. The social factor of migration encourages Indonesians to study in Malaysian universities. The political and environmental factors, which are obvious among the Acehnese, include migrating to Malaysia in the form of refugees and asylum seekers. By exploring all factors of migration, this paper attempts to mapping out the human migration process for Indonesia to Malaysia. Keywords: Human migration, Indonesian worker, immigrant worker, immigrant factor, MalaysiaCite as: Bustami, R., Suyatno., & Wekke, I.S. (2016). Migrants in nusantara: Indonesian and Malaysian perspectives. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 1(2), 63-74.