Migrant workers: Exporting people at risk

Pipensius, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Orang Indonesia di Malaysia, Menjual Kemiskinan Mencari Identitas (Indonesians in Malaysia: Selling Poverty, Searching for Identity); By Dr. M. Arif Nasution; Pustaka Pelajar, 2001; xvii+153pp

The monetary crisis that has crippled this country since 1997 has inevitably led to the increase in number of Indonesians hunting for jobs abroad.

Job scarcity back home due to the fluctuating economy has resulted in some neighboring countries in Asia and the Middle East becoming areas of economic asylum for Indonesian workers. Of course, this phenomenon is somwehat ironic for Indonesia.

This natural-resource rich country drew Europeans centuries ago to come to this archipelago for its riches.

Today, however, to survive we have to work in other countries. The number of people who are unemployed and poor in Indonesia is believed to be 45 million, or 60 percent of the entire population.

Nasution, focusing on Indonesian employees working in Malaysia, starts his investigation with the global perspective, that contemporary human migration among countries is a phenomenon resulting from the spread of global capitalism, since the fall of Communism.

Over-production and the lack of raw natural resources in the parent capitalist countries are among the factors that have led capitalists to try to find guarantees for their existence in backward but natural resource rich countries.

The capitalist expansion in terms of money, technology and management to the developing world has transformed production in the country. Now, many multinationals are established that provide local people with alternatives from the traditional agricultural foundation of society to make a living.

Ever since Malaysia launched a new development policy in 1970 called the New Economic Basis, which was heavily focused on industrialization, the country has emerged as a newly industrialized country in Southeast Asia. This achievement led to the neglect of agriculture and plantations caused by the flight of local workers to cities to work in the industrial sector.

In the city they tended to work in factories and avoid work in menial outdoor jobs. This left jobs vacant in agriculture, plantations, construction and the household sector, providing opportunities for people from neighboring countries.

Indonesia, naturally, has become a supplier, due to the crisis and because it is a densely populated country, especially Java and Madura.

The Indonesian government's transmigration program, sending the poor from overpopulated areas to more remote provinces such as Irian Jaya, Lampung and in Kalimantan, did not work and created even greater social problems.

An alternative to handling the same old problem is by sending the unemployed abroad. Since 1975, the Indonesian manpower ministry established the agency AKAN to manage Indonesian workers wishing to work in other countries. In performing its duties, it works with the Indonesian Manpower Supplier Association (IMSA), which is affiliated to many private manpower suppliers.

These agencies became the legal channels through which Indonesian workers go to pursue jobs abroad. However, in practice, many workers prefer to go through illegal channels because the legal process is too time, money consuming and over- bureaucratic.

For those workers seeking to go to Malaysia, they tend to go through illegal channels because it is cheaper and faster although they are at risk on their journey there and in their jobs, as many horror stories attest.

The writer points out some problems that need to be underlined regarding the characteristics of Indonesian workers in Malaysia. The majority are unskilled and come from rural areas with a low level of education.

In Malaysia, they can only work as housemaids or manual laborers in agriculture, plantations or in construction. Even so, they find better prospects when working in Malaysia and are able to support their families back home. All these stories have motivated other Indonesian workers to join suit.

Apart from the success stories, we also often hear the tragic situation that Indonesian women workers (TKW) face when working abroad, not only in Malaysia but particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Some of those who have been physically or sexually abused end up, in their desperation, killing their abusers, sometimes facing the death penalty as a result.

The Indonesian government is usually powerless to assist the women in such cases. But the government does not have the good will to help improve the professionalism of Indonesian workers who wish to work abroad. Most Indonesian migrant workers can only become manual laborers because they do not have enough knowledge and skills to enable them to work in the professional sector.

Their lack of knowledge and skills make them unable to compete with better skilled workers from India, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines.

The author writes that it is now up to the Indonesian government to pay more attention to Indonesian workers working abroad for they have helped this country increase its income. We need to give them proper objectives and protect them from further abuse so they can pursue their dreams with a sense of security.

Besides providing guarantees for their safety, the government also has to sue those formal worker suppliers and their personnel who blackmail Indonesian workers willing to work abroad. The government have to deregulate and simplify the bureaucracy so as to prevent prospective workers from going through risky illegal channels, which leave them vulnerable to deportation.

It is imperative for the government to help them improve their lives for this country can no longer provide them their welfare.

We should also accept and envision a policy to send the unemployed abroad as an innovative way to tackle the problems of population and unemployment in this country, for which our government has been unable to provide a solution.