JP/1/MIGRANT
Sons, daughters coming home for Idul Fitri reunions
ID Nugroho The Jakarta Post/Surabaya
Across the country at most of the main entry gates, scores of sons and daughters -- especially daughters -- are coming home these days for the Idul Fitri holidays. There is a lot of sobbing and hugging all around once a face is spotted among teeming crowds at the airports. Even though Indonesian migrant workers usually get far from a heroes' welcome, they still are heroes to their families and communities, for which many of them become role models who succeeded, in their eyes, in bringing financial relief and a better future for their families.
On Saturday at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Kasmiati, 32, was one such fortunate worker; fortunate in relation to the many who come home penniless, dazed and traumatized -- or even in a coffin.
Kasmiati burst out crying as she rushed through the waiting crowds carrying two large bags, and embraced a girl, her daughter Siti Maesaroh, who she left four long years ago.
"You're Siti right? I miss you so much," said a tearful Kasmiati. "You're so big now."
Hundreds of people have descended on the airport this week, hailing from East Java's various towns, which have long sent hundreds of thousands of their young people abroad -- Pacitan, Blitar, Sampang Madura, Tulungagung and Kediri. The latest figures reveal that 36,000 Indonesians from East Java are currently working in Asia alone, helping to relieve the province's unemployment figure of 1 million people. Many of them hope to reunite with their families and friends on Idul Fitri, which falls on Thursday and Friday.
Members of the entourage that came to welcome Kasmiati were also looking for other returning workers. "My elder sister should be arriving from Singapore today," said Subagyo, a relative of Kasmiati, who couldn't let go of her only child.
"I left her as a little girl, now she's in junior high," the young mother said.
She explained that her decision to leave home was a difficult one; Siti was only nine and was left with her grandparents. The only visible option for Kasmiati was to work on somebody else's land, which brought barely enough income for the family.
"My family also needed money to build a home and funds for the schooling of my daughter and other relatives," she said, who kept silent when asked about her husband.
She had first left in 1989 and went home two years later. "I didn't manage to improve my family's economic situation, and decided to go to Singapore again in 2001," she said. Kasmiati added that it was her determination to build a house that made her stay in the neighboring country for four consecutive years, sending home a large chunk of her monthly wages of S$250 (about Rp 1.5 million). The result: Relatives said the family now has a fairly large house, a motorcycle and a number of cows.
Alhamdulillah, Thank God, exclaimed Kasmiati of her reunion, made possible by the return ticket bought for by her "kind employer". In past years, "I cried during each Idul Fitri, I was homesick and kept dreaming of meeting my daughter."
After a few weeks, millions will have to leave the country again, perhaps stronger in the face of challenges abroad following their joyful family reunions.
Last year 244,624 Indonesians worked abroad, including 197,291 women. They sent home a total of US$170.86 million in foreign exchange.