Poverty and Family Unity: A panel study from Indonesia

Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium (MOOP)Gender Dimensions of Migration: Material and Social Outcomes of South-South Migration

Asia Research Institute at the National University of SingaporeTuesday 30 June – Thursday 2 July, 2015

Gendered Impacts of International Migration on Poverty and Family Unity:A panel study from Indonesia

by:

Endang SugiyartoMOOP, University of Sussex, UK

MOOP, University of Sussex - UK

Indonesia is one of main labour exporting countries

Having a significant increase out-migration

Attributed to: Low income High poverty Limited employment opportunity

◦ Widespread Poverty: dynamic trends

◦ Employment situation: Economy – relatively high level of unemployment at 6.3% (BPS, 2014) Labour force – low education (primary and secondary) – tertiary is about 9 % (BPS,

2012)

Type of job – low skill jobs

Motivations


A growing feminization

Historical trend– used to be man – change in labour needs in the destination -> demand shift

Women migration: Used to migrate to follow husband/sons/daughters/relatives Increasing flow of women migrants:

Their own right For better life for themselves and their families

The change due to demand and supply processes but also to a range of social dynamics

International Migration Dynamics


Significant increase in the number of women migrants result in:◦ A rise in their economic contributions to

Host country Home country Their family

Women◦ Work in less productive sector of economy (ILO, 2007)◦ Ability to remit may less than men◦ But

Women are more likely to remit regularly and for more productive use

Women are better remitters and managers of remittances (King and Vullnetari, 2010; Osaki, 2003)

Economics Contributions


The work is based on temporary contract in low-end jobs

Individual admission: no family allowance

Create a prolong separation with family and their love ones

Some have caused marital and other problems such as failed marriages that bring adverse effects to family unity and harmony

Nature of migration


To examine the impact of international migration on: Poverty Family unity

Considering gender and migration dynamics using Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) of two period panel data 2000 and 2007

Poverty – poverty status before and after migration

Family unity – using divorce rate as a proxy

All are examined for:◦ International migrant households (HH)◦ International migrant HH with man divorced migrant◦ International migrant HH with woman divorced migrant◦ Non-migrant HH (as the benchmark)

An International migrant is a household member who currently abroad for more than 6 months between 2000 and 2007 when the household was interviewed

Main Purpose of the Research


◦ Almost 90% are workers, in which 53% are women◦ The primary drivers of migration:

Poverty Lack of local income generating opportunities

◦ Migration has helped to reduce poverty by approximately 14 percentage points

◦ Gender seemed to influence the impact: men migrants perform better than women. HH with men migrants experiencing a greater poverty

reduction than those with women i.e. 15 compare to 11 percentage points

Key Findings on Poverty Impact


The prolonged separation have caused a significant number of them to divorce:

18 % of married migrants end up with divorce, which is 11 percentage points higher than non-migrants

In other words, migration has increased the likelyhood of them getting divorced by nearly three times

The impact among women migrants is much higher, i.e. 20% for women and 16% for men migrant

Key findings on Family Unity Impact


Worst still, HH with divorced migrants experienced less poverty reduction than non-divorced one

The women divorced migrant is the worst in this aspect Migrant HH with divorced women needed more than two

migrants to reach the same level of poverty reduction as non-migrant HH and non-migrant HH with divorced member

In other words, with only one women migrant in the HH, poverty can only be reduced by less than a half of the reduction in non-migrant HH and non-migrant HH with divorced member

Important Note: Divorced women migrants are more vulnerable for

They need to resolve their problems alone without support from the spouse

They must face a negative perspective from the community

Poverty and Family Unity Impact


Overall findings call for: A better facilitation and management of migration:

To strengthen the pro-poor effects To reduce its adverse effects

Policy actions should include: Improving migrant skills – so they can access more

remunerative jobs Reducing migration and remitting costs Consider family unity in the job contract that may take

time and involve a series of negotiations

Policy Implications

Documents

Poverty and Family Unity: A panel study from Indonesia