Java governors agree to limit migration

Java governors agree to limit migration

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Governors on Java have agreed to give priority to people from
their own localities when filling job vacancies in their own
province in an attempt to control the high level of migration to
major cities on the island, said a local official.

"Of course, job vacancies are open to all citizens but we have
agreed to give priority to our own people when filling vacancies.
This is to prevent people from remote areas in Java and Sumatra
from migrating to major cities such as Jakarta, Bandung,
Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya," East Java Governor R. Nuriana
said here on Tuesday.

He said the consensus had been reached at a recent meeting of
governors in Jakarta.

However, he said it was impossible for a province to bar
people from visiting other provinces because that was an abuse of
human rights.

"We will not make a bylaw to prohibit the people from other
provinces visiting or migrating to West Java, but the policy will
be effective in increasing employment for local people in the
province," said Nuriana, who is also chairman of the Indonesian
Provincial Administration Association.

Nuriana acknowledged that the annual major wave of migration
to the province had caused a major problem for the provincial
administration because the presence of migrants had reduced job
opportunities for local job seekers.

"Should all provinces be of the same vision and make a similar
policy, a potential population explosion in Java's major cities
could be avoided in the future," he said.

The provincial administration has distributed circulars among
migrants, asking them not to bring relatives from their home
villages to the provincial capital because such action would pose
problems both for them and the provincial authorities.

Due to the prolonged economic crisis, more and more people
from rural areas are expected to migrate to cities because they
are of the opinion that it is easier to get job and make money in
urban areas.

"We shall remind job seekers in the province that they should
not protest if they are denied access to jobs in Central Java as
of next January because of the consensus," he said.

Nuriana noted that more than 400,000 people from numerous
provinces had migrated annually to the province and their
presence not only stimulated economic growth but also reduced job
opportunities for local job seekers.

"So far, 45 percent, or 16 million of almost 35 million people
in West Java live below the poverty line. It is a challenge for
the provincial administration to improve their social status," he
said.

Separately, assistant to the mayor of Bandung on public
administration affairs Maman Suparman said the city
administration would carry out a joint operation with the city
security authorities to crack down on informal traders, who were
mostly from outside the province.

"Only a few Sundanese people work in the informal sector
because they lose out in competition with migrants," he said,
adding that almost all traditional markets and shops in the city
were dominated by migrants.