The Bilocal Migrant in a Central Java City: Livelihood Patterns, Remittances, and Connecting the Impacts to Rural Development
5. Conclusion
Several types of circular mobility were identified based on their livelihood profile in both rural and urban area, the duration of stay in the city, the repetition of move and the directionality, as well as the remittance use both for household and community. This article views such dynamics through the lens of bilocality, which focuses on dynamics in urban and rural areas. Different types of employment were found in Surakarta where the informal sector provided the dominant labour opportunity. This includes jobs such as food vendors, food shop workers, other informal vendors, pedicab drivers, construction workers, industrial workers, and service workers with various income level are found. Education level and skill issues are two major reasons determining the patterns of circular migrants involved in informal sector in the study area.
Meanwhile, the responsibility of the migrants to their family in rural areas has also created particular types of circular mobility, i.e.: the simple pattern and the multiple pattern. The circularity pattern of the rural urban migrants is quite dynamic, whereby Surakarta city is not always the main destination, particularly to those who sought out labour opportunities in multiple destinations.
Personal decision and changing market potential are two main reasons structuring the movements of this type of migrant. Even though the movement is dynamic from one city to another city, the job involved remains the same, as construction workers or food vendors. It shows that the ability and habits of a migrant in a specific employment sector determines his/her job continuity in other destinations.
In regard to the impacts of remittance to the rural household and community, this study makes clear that circular migration provides a means for the rural household. Most of the remittances are spent on fulfilling daily needs of the family for basic consumption needs (food, goods, medical expenses, debt payment and house improvements), while the other portion is not allocated for productive use like education cost, saving and investment. Nevertheless, the impacts of remittances to the rural community in a broader sense are still limited, and as households may benefit from additional income, there is a limited impact on the broader development needs in rural areas, such as in the form of contributions to infrastructure and loans to rural community development. At this level, circular rural urban migration is mostly considered as fulfilling the urgent needs of the family, and to a much lesser degree having an impact to the broader community.
Furthermore, the impacts on future development will also take shape as part of the strategies of length of stay. Some circular migrants express migration as part of a preliminary strategy before an ultimate permanent relocation of themselves and their family (or future family, as most of the respondents are relatively of a younger age), but for others migration is part of a strategy to return to their rural and ancestral homes. Circular migration is more than simply a means to test the destination environment before settling. A strong connection to the rural origin
affects future decisions, and the way bilocality unfolds as part of broader economic conditions and the priorities among migrants shaping the process will determine future development far beyond those taking place in urban areas.
Acknowledgement
This article is part of research on circular migration in Surakarta City. Thank you very much to all team members for the efforts in collecting data during the field survey.
References
Akay, A., Giulietti, C., Robalino, J. D., & Zimmermann, K. F. (2014). Remittances and well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in China. Review of Economics of the Household, 12(3), 517–
546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-013-9208-7.
Brücker, H., & Jahn, E. J. (2011). Migration and Wage‐setting: Reassessing the Labor Market Effects of Migration. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 113(2).
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2010.01634.x.
CBS. (2016). Statistic of Surakarta 2015. Surakarta.
Cohen, J. H. (2005). Remittance outcomes and migration: Theoretical contests, real opportunities.
Studies in Comparative International Development, 40(1), 88–112.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686290.
De Braw A. (2010). Seasonal migration and agricultural production in Vietnam. The Journal of
Development Studies, 46(1), 114–139. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380903197986.
De Haan, A., Brock, K., Carswell, G., Coulibaly, N., Seba, H., & Toufique, K. A. (2000).
Migration and livelihoods: Case studies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali. Brighton, Sussex:
Institute of Development Studies.
de Haas, H. (2006). Migration, remittances and regional development in Southern Morocco.
Geoforum, 37(4), 565–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.11.007.
Dejong, G. (2000). Expectations, Gender, and Norms in Migration Decision-Making. Population
Studies, 54(3), 307–319. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713779089.
Deshingkar, P., & Akter, S. (2009). Migration and Human Development in India (No. 2009/13).
Munich. Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19193/.
Fallon, P. R., & Lucas, R. E. B. (2002). The Impact of Financial Crises on Labor Markets, Household Incomes, and Poverty: A Review of Evidence. The World Bank Research Observer, 17(1), 21–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/17.1.21.
Firman, T. (1994). Labour Allocation , Mobility , and Remittances in Rural Households : A Case
from Central Java , Indonesia. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 9(1), 81–101.
Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056877.
Firman, T. (2002). Urban development in Indonesia, 1990-2001: From the boom to the early reform era through the crisis. Habitat International, 26(2), 229–249.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0197-3975(01)00045-5.
Firman, T. (2009). The continuity and change in mega-urbanization in Indonesia: A survey of Jakarta-Bandung Region (JBR) development. Habitat International, 33(4), 327–339.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2008.08.005.
Friedmann, J. (2011). Becoming urban: periurban dynamics in Vietnam and China—
introduction. Pacific Affairs, 84(3), 425-434.
Garip, F. (2012). An Integrated Analysis of Migration and Remittances: Modeling Migration as a Mechanism for Selection. Population Research and Policy Review, 31(5), 637–663.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-012-9246-5.
Gollopeni, B. (2015). Rural Urban Migration in Kosovo. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 6(91), 16–17.
Gubert, F. (2002). Do migrants insure those who stay behind? Evidence from the Kayes area (western Mali). Oxford Development Studies, 30(3), 267–288.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1360081022000012699.
Ha, W., Yi Junjian, & Zhang Junsen. (2009). Inequality and Internal Evidence from Village Migration in China: Panel Data (No. 16896). Munich. Retrieved from http://mpra.ub.uni- muenchen.de/16896/.
Haan, A. De. (1997). Rural- Migration and Poverty. IDS Bulletin, 28(2), 35–47.
Hugo, G. (1978). Population Mobility in West Java. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.
Hugo, G. (1982). Circular Migration in Indonesia. Population and Development Review, 8(1), 59–
83. https://doi.org/10.2307/1972690.
Hugo, G. (2006). Population development and the urban outlook for Southeast Asia. In T. Wong, B. J. Shaw, & K. Goh (Eds.), Challenge Sustainability: Urban Development and Change in Southeast Asia. In Challenge Sustainability: Urban Development and Change in Southeast Asia (pp. 268–298). Singapore: Marshal Cavendish Academic.
Hugo, G. (2013). What we know about circular migration and enhanced mobility. Migration Policy Institute, 7, 1-10.
Hugo, G. (2014). Urban migration trends, challenges, responses and policy in the Asia–Pacific.
World Migration Report, 2015. The University of Adelaide, Australia. International Organization for Migration (IOM).
ILO. (2011). Global employment trends 2011: The challenge of a jobs recovery. International Labour Office.
Jones, G. W., Tsay Ching-lung, & Bajracharya Bhishna. (1999). Demographic and Employment Change in Megacities of South-East and East Asia. Demography. Retrieved from
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/41462.
Keshri, K., & Bhagat, R. B. (2012). Temporary and Seasonal Migration: Regional Pattern, Characteristics and Associated Factors. Source: Economic and Political Weekly, 47(4), 81–
88. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41419769%0Ahttp://about.jstor.org/terms Kirdar, M. G. (2009). Labor market outcomes, savings accumulation, and return migration. Labour
Economics, 16(4), 418–428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2009.01.004.
Lam Tran, Bryant, J. R., Chamratrithirong Aphicat, & Sawangdee Yotin. (2007). Labor Migration in Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System : Characteristics and Determinants.
Journal of Population and Social Studies, 16(1), 117–144.
Leaf, M. (2011). Periurban Asia: A commentary on “becoming urban.” Pacific Affairs, 84(3), 525–
534. https://doi.org/10.5509/2011843525.
Lucas, R. E. B. (2007). Migration and rural development. Journal of Agricultural and
Development Economics, 4(1), 99–122. Retrieved from
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/112594/2/ai193e00.pdf.
Manning, C. (1998). Indonesian labour in transition: An East Asian success story? London:
Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, N., Carletto, C., Kilic, T., & Davis, B. (2009). Assessing the impact of massive out- migration on Albanian agriculture. European Journal of Development Research, 21(3), 448–
470. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2009.12.
McGee, T., & Robinson, I. (1995). The mega-urban region of Southeast Asia. Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press.
Medeiros, R. M., Duarte, F., Achmad, F., & Jalali, A. (2018). Merging ICT and informal transport in Jakarta’s ojek system. Transportation Planning and Technology, 41(3), 336–352.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2018.1435465.
Nail, T. (2015). The figure of the migrant. Stanford University Press.
Newland, K. (2009). Circular Migration and Human Development. Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19225/.
Pham, B. N., & Hill, P. S. (2008). The role of temporary migration in rural household economic strategy in a transitional period for the economy of Vietnam. Asian Population Studies, 4(1), 57–75.
Pratama, R. A. (2015). The Influences of Migrant Settlement to the Local Community : An Analysis of Socio-Economic Aspect (Case of Ampenan and Sekarbela , Mataram Municipality ). Junral Pembangunan Wilayah Dan Kota, 11(4), 471–483. Retrieved from https://ejournal.undip.ac.id/index.php/pwk/article/view/11600.
Qian, W., Wang, D., & Zheng, L. (2016). The impact of migration on agricultural restructuring:
Evidence from Jiangxi Province in China. Journal of Rural Studies, 47, 542–551.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.07.024.
Quartey, P., & Blankson, T. (2004). Do Migrant Remittances Minimize the Impact of Macro-
volatility on the Poor in Ghana ? Global Development Network.
Rahmi, A., & Rudiarto, I. (2013). Karakteristik Migrasi dan Dampaknya terhadap Pengembangan Pedesaan Kecamatan Kedungjati, Kabupaten Grobogan. Jurnal Pembangunan Wilayah &
Kota, 9(4), 331. https://doi.org/10.14710/pwk.v9i4.6672.
Rakodi, C., & Firman, T. (2009). Planning for an Extended Metropolitan Region in Asia: Jakarta, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2013-24-01-005.
Satti, S. L., Hassan, M. S., Hayat, F., & Paramati, S. R. (2016). Economic Growth and Inflow of Remittances: Do They Combat Poverty in an Emerging Economy? Social Indicators Research, 127(3), 1119–1134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1003-9.
Schiff, M. W. (1994). How trade, aid, and remittances affect international migration ((Vol. 1376).
World Bank Publications.
Skeldon, R. (2010). Managing Migration for Development: Is Circular Migration the Answer? The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, 11(1), 21–33.
Tacoli, C., & McGranahan, G. (2015). Urbanisation, rural – urban migration and urban poverty.
iied. Retrieved from http://pubs.iied.org/10725IIED.
Tacoli, C., McGranahan, G., & Satterthwaite, D. (2015). World Migration Report 2015:
Urbanization, Rural–Urban Migration and Urban Poverty.
UN-Habitat, & ESCAP. (2015). The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015. Urban Transformations Shifting from Quantity to Quality.
UN ESCAP, & UN HABITAT. (2010). The State of Children in Asian Cities 2010/2011. Fukuoka:
UN-Habitat. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/141 Snet The State of Children in Asian Cities.pdf.
UN ESCAP, & UN HABITAT. (2015). The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015: Urban Transformations Shifting from Quantity to Quality. UN-Habitat and ESCAP.
UNECE. (2016). Defining and Measuring Circular Migration: Final report of the Task Force on Measuring Circular Migratione. Luxembourg.
Vadean, F. P., & Piracha Matloob. (2009). Circular migration or permanent return: What determines different forms of migration? (No. 09/12). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10419/50588.
Webster, D. (2002). On the Edge: Shaping the Future of Peri-Urban East Asia. Asia/Pacific Research Center.
World Bank, & IMF. (2013). Global Monitoring Report 2013: Rural-Urban Dynamics and the Millennium Development Goals. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-9806-7.
Zegras, P. C., Eros, E., Butts, K., Resor, E., Kennedy, S., Ching, A., & Mamun, M. (2015). Tracing a path to knowledge? Indicative user impacts of introducing a public transport map in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 8(1), 113–129.
https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsu028.
Zelinsky, W. (1971). The Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition. Geographical Review, 61(2), 219–249.
Zhao, Z. (2005). Migration, Labor Market Flexibility, and Wage Determination in China: A
Review. The Developing Economies, 43(2), 285–312.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1049.2005.tb00263.x.
Iwan Rudiarto <[email protected]>
Invitation to revise manuscript RURAL_2019_8_R1
Eleanor Fisher (Journal of Rural Studies) <[email protected]> Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 3:00 PM Reply-To: [email protected]
Ref: RURAL_2019_8_R1
Title: Rural - Urban Migration in a Central Java City: Livelihood Patterns, Remittances, and Connecting the Impacts to Rural Development Journal: Journal of Rural Studies
Dear Dr. Rudiarto,
Thank you for submitting your revised manuscript and response to reviewers to Journal of Rural Studies, which I have now re-read carefully. Overall you have responded to the reviewers' comments well and the manuscript is almost of publishable standard, with potential to make a good contribution to existing debate, however there remain some details that need to be addressed, I am therefore returning it to you with a request for further revision. I have selected a deadline of October 30th, however if more time is needed this wouldn't be a problem.
1. After you have accepted the track changes that appear on the version that was submitted the English needs careful editing to pick up minor errors that appear throughout. Once a manuscript is sent to production the editing process is light touch, errors wont be corrected by the production team. For example, line 310 "In average" should be "On average", line 567 "important" should be "importance", line 748 "dynamics in" should be "dynamics between urban and rural" It is not my place to go through checking for all the errors, these are just examples. There are also many long paragraphs that need to be spilt.
2. The title - I notice you have changed "the bilocal migrant" to "rural - urban" and I've been trying to see if this was recommended by a reviewer. It is my view that this better captured the pitch of your paper and why it is novel. I would recommend either returning to "the bilocal migrant" or something like "bilocal migration to and from Central Java City [rather than "in"]. I also would suggest changing the terms after the colon "connecting the impacts to Rural Development" doesn't represent the paper well. you have a theme about migration being shaped by both economic decisions and broader decisions, maybe it is this key point you need to capture in the title rather than the detail on livelihoods and remittances.
3. I would recommend you revise the abstract to make it succinctly convey your main argument/contribution, at present it is long and appears "lost in the detail".
4. Your highlights are too long, they need to be 85 characters each. As a tip focus on what your main findings are/the contribution of the paper.
5. Keywords - circular migration or bilocal migration? rural-urban migration not migrants. Cut Sukarta city.
6. Acknowledgements - I would recommend naming the team members who collected data, also acknowledging the anonymous reviewers.
7. Define bilocal, circular, seasonal and rural - urban migration - the differences are not obvious to a reader such as myself who is not a migration specialist. I also guess there maybe regional differences in what these terms connote so please be clear. I hope I haven't missed the definitions, I've been scanning to check they are not there. Also, throughout your text be very clear how you are using specific terms, I find there is a looseness regarding when 'bilocal' and when 'circular' migration are used, you need to be precise in the use of terminology.
8. Very important: you bury the aim of the paper at the end of a long paragraph lines 167 - 196, please make your aims and research questions clear within a separate paragraph. I have been trying to find your questions, they must be clear and also your conclusion needs to return to them (if this is not improved the manuscript wont be accepted).
9. I have one substantive comment and I regret not identifying this at the first revision request stage: throughout your use of the term migrant is a homogeneous category (sexless, ageless, no ethnicity, etc.). In my view this is a short-coming of the paper, not least because it begs the question whether certain social categories are bilocal migrants over and above others e.g. young male. Ideally one would want to see attention to social differentiation mainstreamed across the paper, however at this stage can I ask whether you have information on at least gender and age to include in section three? For example after 3.1.4 on education. If you do could you please address this issue, if you don't you need to be explicit that it is a short coming of the empirical data.
Some points I picked up when reading the text:
66-68: you first state that reclassification from rural to urban is most likely to be happening in sites transformed into mega cities... then you say this is not confined to the growth poles as medium-sized cities, etc. This is confusing, you appear to be contradicting yourselves.
194-198: I would suggest move to line 180.
251-252: for a non-Indonesian audience either explain what these traditional foods are or you could cut the examples altogether.
paragraph 260: the grammar needs checking (is and are, for and to are confused).
312: you refer to the currency rate but in the revisions you have converted all the currency to US$ so dont need to give this.
425: Figures 6 & 7 - line 476 you seem to imply that there was movement between Surakarta and other cities, however you have no arrows for this in your figures.
Was it not happening? If it was then you a. need to include arrows and b. [important] need to think what implications this has for your argument on 'bilocality' if it is in fact 'trilocality' or similar. Please clarify in text.
570 - 572: move sentence to earlier in paper.
There are paragraphs that are too long.
681: Do you present evidence that the flow of remittances is absolutely critical for wellbeing in many village households? I would suggest this is outside the scope of your paper. It is a complex issue that could be a paper in its own right. I suggest revision to a statement not supported by robust empirical data.
There is a section here around lines 681 to 742 that should be in your findings not in your discussion, particularly related to Table 9.
782: the end of your conclusion, I wanted to have a clearer statement of your aims and questions to see the main overarching message and original contribution of your paper in the conclusion. I can see you have included the final paragraph in response to reviewers comments. I would suggest coming back and checking the conclusion and this paragraph once you have made the revisions I have suggested, in order to see whether you capture the "so what" of your overarching argument.
I notice this last paragraph refers to circular migration, earlier in the text there is more emphasis on bilocal migration.
When submitting your manuscript revisions please finalise without keeping the track changes.
Locate your manuscript under the header 'My Submissions that need Revisions' on your 'My Author Tasks' view Click on 'Agree to Revise'
Make the required edits
Click on 'Complete Submission' to approve What happens next?
After approving your submission you will receive a notification that the submission is complete. To track the status of your paper throughout the editorial process, log into EVISE® at: http://www.evise.com/evise/faces/pages/navigation/NavController.jspx?JRNL_ACR=RURAL
Enrich your article to present your research with maximum impact. This journal supports the following Content Innovations:
Data in Brief (optional)
We invite you to convert your supplementary data (or a part of it) into a Data in Brief article. Data in Brief articles are descriptions of the data and associated metadata which are normally buried in supplementary material. They are actively reviewed, curated, formatted, indexed, given a DOI and freely available to all upon publication. Data in Brief should be uploaded with your revised manuscript directly to Journal of Rural Studies. If your Journal of Rural Studies research article is accepted, your Data in Brief article will automatically be transferred over to our new, fully Open Access journal, Data in Brief, where it will be editorially reviewed and published as a separate data article upon acceptance. The Open Access fee for Data in Brief is $500. This fee applies to Data in Brief articles submitted via Journal of Rural Studies between July 1st and December 31st, 2017.
Please just fill in the template found here:
http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/misc/dib_data%20article%20template_for%20other%20journals.docx. Then, place all Data in Brief files (whichever supplementary files you would like to include as well as your completed Data in Brief template) into a .zip file and upload this as a Data in Brief item alongside your Journal of Rural Studies revised manuscript. Note that only this Data in Brief item will be transferred over to Data in Brief, so ensure all of your relevant Data in Brief documents are zipped into a single file. Also, make sure you change references to supplementary material in your Journal of Rural Studies manuscript to reference the Data in Brief article where appropriate.
Questions? Please send your inquiries to [email protected]. Example Data in Brief can be found here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/23523409
I look forward to receiving your revised manuscript as soon as possible.
Kind regards, Professor Fisher Associate Editor Journal of Rural Studies
Comments from the editors and reviewers:
Have questions or need assistance?
For further assistance, please visit our Customer Support site. Here you can search for solutions on a range of topics, find answers to frequently asked questions, and learn more about EVISE® via interactive tutorials. You can also talk 24/5 to our customer support team by phone and 24/7 by live chat and email.
--- Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. | Privacy Policy
Elsevier B.V., Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Reg. No. 33156677.