Migration out of Central Java: 1971–2010
Creators: name: Rangkuti, Hasnani
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2016
Subjects: internal migration
origin-destination-specific
conditional probability of migration
employment
inter-marriage
status exchange on education
migrants
Central Java
Indonesia

description: Migration within Indonesia has a long history, a history associated with the uneven distribution of population across the archipelago that has persisted over centuries. Throughout this history, out-migration has been associated with population policy and, in particular, with one province, Central Java. The main objective of the thesis is to investigate contemporary patterns of population movement within Indonesia and to situate Central Java in the overall migration pattern. Specifically the thesis examines patterns and changes in inter-provincial migration, calculates rates of primary, onward and return migration for Central Java, and investigates employment outcomes and marital assimilation of Central Java’s migrants in selected destinations. Utilising the five censuses of Indonesia from 1971 to 2010, the thesis found that Central Java was the largest source of out-migration in all the censuses, and was strongly connected with movements into two provinces: Jakarta and Yogyakarta. I argue that the connectedness between Central Java and Jakarta is related to economic opportunities while similarity in culture and proximity are the key connectivities between Central Java and Yogyakarta. Over time, the proportion of primary and onward migration to Jakarta declined substantially. At the same time, the proportion moving to West Java increased significantly. A substantial proportion of Central Java primary migrants was also found in Kepulauan Riau. I argue that the decline in the proportion of primary and onward migration to Jakarta is due to the economic extension of Jakarta to its peripheral regions in West Java and Banten. Comparing three destinations, Central Java primary migrants are less likely, as opposed to non-migrants, to be employed in Semarang Metropolitan Region (SMR) and are more likely to be employed in Jakarta Metropolitan Region (JMR) and Batam-Bintan-Karimun (BBK). In JMR, Central Java primary female migrants are less likely to work in manufacturing relative to Central Java primary male migrants. In contrast, in BBK, Central Java primary female migrants are more likely to work in manufacturing relative to Central Java primary male migrants. The nature of the manufacturing industry in the destination influences the gender of the migrants. I also find that private-assisted labour movement acts as a gateway for migrants to seek better opportunities in distant places. From a social perspective, patterns of marital assimilation of Central Javanese husbands and wives are higher when measured by ethno-migration status that is, province of birth than they are by ethnicity. I argue that ethnicity is a better variable for measuring patterns of inter-marriage than ethno-migration status. When they do inter-marry, Central Javanese migrants favour marriage with local people compared with marrying people from other groups. Exogamous marriage is lower in JMR than it is in BBK when measured by either ethno-migration status or ethnicity. While education homogamy is the norm in all ethnic pairing type marriages, I found that hyper-gamy is more likely to be found in exogamous marriages than in endogamous marriages. As the levels of educational differences between husband and wife increases the likelihood of inter-marrying increases. As opposed to Javanese intra-marriages, Javanese husbands and wives who are in inter-marriages are more likely to marry down than to marry equally on education in both BBK and JMR. This means that status exchange on education applies among Central Javanese who inter-married local people in BBK and JMR. By examining patterns and outcomes of migration out of Central Java, my thesis contributes to the literature in understanding contemporary patterns of inter-provincial migration, and employment and marital assimilation of migrants who originate from the same place of origin but who migrate to different places of destination.