Migrant workers: Exporting people at risk

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.