The Bilocal Migrant in a Central Java City: Livelihood Patterns, Remittances, and Connecting the Impacts to Rural Development
3. Result
3.1 Characteristics of circular migrants 3.1.1 The origin
central java
a) b)
From the survey, most of the circular migrants originated from areas surrounding Surakarta, such as Boyolali, Sukoharjo, Wonogiri, Sragen, and Klaten districts. These districts are within a radius of 60 km of Surakarta. Circular migrants from this area shape around 36.2% of the total samples. A significant number of circular migrants were also identified from West Java Province, particularly from rural areas of Tasikmalaya, Cirebon, Kuningan, Ciamis and Garut districts. The circular migrants from this area share about 33.3% of the total samples, whereas Tasikmalaya district was found as the largest contributor among them with 7,1% of samples. Most migrants from West Java work as food vendors, selling traditional foods such as batagor, siomay, cakue, cireng, etc. Other than that, some of the circular migrants also come from other regions in Central Java Province like Grobogan, Kendal, Pekalongan, Tegal, and Brebes district. Others are from Yogyakarta and East Java Province. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the origin of circular migrants.
Fig. 2. The origin of circular migrants in Surakarta City 3.1.2 Duration of migration
The results showed that 45.7% of the respondents stay in the city between 3 to 6 months for one migratory period. Those who stay during this range of time are usually those who have temporary contracts in the city, like construction workers who have contracts between 3 to 6 months, depending on the project. Those who worked in food shop like burjo – a traditional food made from green bean- are usually contracted for periods of around 4 months. Those who decide to stay for more sustained periods do so because of the distance to their hometowns are quite far.
About 28.6% of the respondents stay for shorter periods of time in the city, ranging from 1 to 3 months. This latter category are those who go to Surakarta and return regularly to their village.
Usually, these migrants have their main jobs in the city, and even though they spend some time in
the village, they will come back again and again on a regular basis. This case applied for some food vendors, some type of other informal vendors, pedicab drivers, and industrial workers.
Meanwhile, 7.6% of the respondents stay in the city for less than a month. Those who stay for these short periods of time are usually those who still have family in rural area within a manageable distance (usually under the range of 60 km) to go back and forth for a short period of time. This case is also applied for seasonal vendors who sell specific items in specific time periods in the city, like the case of flag sellers who come to the city between July – August every year leading up to national Independence Day. In this case, the sellers come from further distances, more than 350 km, but they do only one cycle of circular migration in a year, by which they spend the rest of the time in the village. Back in the village they are employed as flag makers and they reproduce the item during their stay in the village. Other respondents have an uncertain time of stay in the city. Those who are categorized as such usually have the range of stay between 1 to 6 months.
3.1.3 The length of experience
The lengths of circular migration experience practiced by the migrants have a strong relationship with migrant age groups. As illustrated in Table 1, younger circular migrants usually began the experience quite recently, while older ones already practiced the circulation strategy for a sustained period. About 10 respondents from the age group of 40 – 49 to > 60 years mentioned that they already implement the circular migration strategy for more than 20 years. The information from Table 1 indicates that most of the circular migrants started the circular migration strategy quite early and some of them maintain this livelihood strategy for a sustained period.
Table 1. The length of circular migration experience
Migrants’ Age Groups Length of practicing
circular migration < 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 > 60
Total
< 1 year 4 3 2 9
1 - 3 years 6 21 3 8 38
3 - 5 years 2 6 8 1 1 18
5 - 10 years 3 6 4 2 15
10 - 15 years 6 4 1 11
15 - 20 years 3 1 4
> 20 years 3 4 3 10
Total 12 33 25 23 7 5 105
3.1.4 Education level and type of job
Education level is often related with the type of job that can be accessed by people. In terms of education level, the circular migrants surveyed in this research, mostly graduated from Senior High School (36%), and Junior High School (34%). While 25% of the respondents graduated from elementary school and 4% never attended school at all. Only 1% of the respondents have higher
education in university. In terms of job by education level as shown in Figure 3, more migrants worked as food vendors, which was dominated by those with elementary, junior high school, and senior high school education, followed by informal vendors, construction worker, and pedicab drivers. Uneducated migrants worked as pedicab driver or informal vendors. While university graduated found more to be as informal vendor.
Food vendors Food shop workers Other informal
vendors Construction
workers Industrial workers Pedicab drivers Service workers Semiformal-sector workers
0 5 10 15 20 25
Never Attended School Elementary School Junior High School Senior High School University
Fig. 3. Level of education attainment by job type
3.1.5 Rate of income and motivation in circular migration
In average, circular migrants in Surakarta comparatively make relatively low amount of income in the city. As highlighted in Figure 4, incomes range between 1 million rupiahs to 2 million rupiahs per month (or $66 US to $133 US with currency rate of 15,000 rupiahs per $1 US), which is characteristic of 66.7% of total respondents. The average income calculated from all respondents in this survey is 1,775,714 rupiahs per month. Surprisingly, this amount is higher than the minimum wage standard of Surakarta for 2017 which is only 1,534,985 rupiahs per month. - However, migrant employment in the city usually correlates to rate of income. Several employment types, like food vendors and food shop workers has wide range of income, from less than 1,000,000 rupiahs per month to more than 2,500,000 rupiahs per month.
Food vendors Food shop
workers Other informal
vendors Construction
workers Industrial workers Pedicab drivers Service workers Semiformal-sector workers 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Less than Rp 1.000.000 Rp 1.000.000 - Rp 1.500.000 Rp 1.500.000 - Rp 2.000.000 Rp 2.000.000 - Rp 2.500.000 More than Rp 2.500.000
Fig. 4. Percentage of income by job type
Meanwhile, other types of jobs, like pedicab drivers, industrial workers, and service workers have a smaller range of incomes, from less than 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 rupiahs. These three job categories have the lowest average salary compared to others. On the other hand, semiformal sector workers – those who worked in more formal environment such as shop and printing company - also have short range of salary, but this group have a slightly higher rate of income compared to the above-mentioned categories as shown in Figure 4. In terms of migrant average income, other informal vendors have the highest average income compared to other types of jobs, followed by construction workers, semiformal sector workers and food vendors. Pedicab drivers have the lowest rate of income amongst other type of jobs, which also below the City’s minimum wage standards. Industrial workers have an income rate similar to city standards. All kind of migrant jobs are in the expectation of obtaining better income.
The internal decision for circular migration between two places is mainly because of economic reasons. Amongst the total number of 105 sample respondents, - they are allowed to provide more than one answer on their motivation for circular migration - there are 90 respondents (85%) that applied circular migration to obtain additional source of income for the family as the major reason. While 62% were motivated due to social and cultural reasons and others concern on the poor conditions in their rural area of origin.
1 2
6 4
11 19
46
90
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Follow family member Looking for experience in the city Don't want to work in agriculture sector Limited access of job in the village Don't have agriculture land in village Cultural aspects Strong social and family ties in rural area To get additional source of income
Number of responses
Fig. 5. Motivation for circular migration
3.2 Pattern of circulation
3.2.1 The bi-locality of circular migrants: rural-urban livelihood profile
The bi-locality aspect of the circular migrants explains the characteristic of rural-urban livelihoods of the migrants as shown in Table 2. In this research, 100% of respondent core family, meaning wife/husband, children, and parents still live in the village. The migrants usually go to the city and come back frequently to the village either for work or visiting family. About 73% of the respondents still maintain employment in rural areas. The remainder do not have permanent employment, but provide support for family members in his/her line of work in return for pay, usually in farming sectors such as rice farming or home-based businesses such as food and snack stalls. Meanwhile, in regards with land ownership, only about half of respondents still have agriculture land in rural areas. They usually still work in the agriculture sector upon return or have family who work in that sector.
Table 2. Profile of rural-urban livelihood
Still have Job in
Rural Area Family Living in
Rural Area Agriculture Land Ownership Type of Job in Urban Area Respond
ents
Yes % Yes Yes % Yes Yes % Yes
Food vendors 49 30 61 49 100 26 53
Food shop workers 9 8 89 9 100 2 22
Other informal vendors 14 12 86 14 100 8 57
Construction workers 11 10 91 11 100 7 64
Industrial workers 3 3 100 3 100 1 33
Pedicab drivers 9 9 100 9 100 3 33
Service workers 6 5 83 6 100 4 67
Semiformal-sector workers 4 0 0 4 100 2 50
Total 105 77 73 105 100 53 50
The agriculture-based job shapes around 60% of the total respondents. However, there are also some others who work in the trade and service sectors, i.e. those who run home-based businesses, work as traders, construction workers, service workers, and semiformal sector workers.
The interesting part about these two livelihood profiles of migrants is the fact that those who work in agriculture sectors in the village have a diverse range of jobs in the city, including those as food vendors to service workers. On the other hand, all respondents who work as semiformal sector workers in the city, which includes work as shopkeepers, usually do not have jobs anymore in rural areas.
Table 3. Typology of rural-urban livelihood
Type of Typology
Livelihood condition
Description Typology 1 Main job in
urban and supplementary work in rural area
Stay longer in the city, around 8 – 10 months
Migrant household depends on earnings in the city as the main income for the family, while income in rural area is seen as supplementary.
Circularity is maintained in order to keep both jobs in both locations.
Typology 2 Main job in urban area – provide help in rural area
Migrants do not have permanent employment in rural area, usually only helping family members to do their line of work in return for payment
Circularity often, but not necessarily for the purpose of work, often to visit family in rural area.
Typology 3 Main job in urban area – no job in rural area
Migrants do not have a job in rural area but still maintain circularity.
Movements are usually for the purpose of seeing family members or maintaining assets in the village.
Even though migrants do not have job in rural area, without intention of moving to urban area.
Circularity occurs regularly since most of them come from surrounding areas of Surakarta.
Typology 4 Complementary - Complementary
Migrants have not decided which one is the main job for them, because both types of work are considered as complementary to one another.
Usually they stay in the city and village for similar amount of time, or they make equal rate of income even though time difference can vary.
In the case of crop farm workers who work as pedicab drivers in the city, they come back to the village during key harvests. They consider this pattern as a complementary work rather than one supporting the other.
Typology 5 Main job in rural area – supplementary job in urban area
Stay in the city and village same amount of time, around 6 - 6 months to 8 – 4 months.
Some cases only stay in the city for a very short period of time, around 1 – 2 months in the city.
Circularity more periodical.
Most migrants included in this category are self-employed farmers who own agricultural land in the village or work as service workers who come to the city to sell products that they make in the village.
According to the result of the survey, the livelihood profile of circular migrants can be divided into five categories based on the livelihood profile in rural and urban areas, and the relations between those two. Some have their main job in the city with a supplementary job in the village. Others main site of employment is also in the city, and these people do not have a full-
time job in the village upon their return. Rather, they provide help for a family member in his/her line of work in return for pay. A third type of circular migrant has a full-time job in the city and no job in the rural area, but they still maintain the circularity, especially to visit family or maintain assets. The fourth type, have jobs both in the city and the village as complementary to each other.
The final category is the circular migrant who has their main job in the village, and obtains supplementary employment in the city. Table 3 provides the main typology of migrant’s livelihood, circularity, and its description in the study area.
3.2.2 The iterative and spatial dimension
From the survey, two types of circulation pattern were found in relation to the migrant jobs in Surakarta, i.e.: a simple pattern and a multiple pattern (see Figure 6). The simple pattern is applied for the migrants whereby circularity is conducted constantly between two areas. This case is applied for migrants who have a more permanent or structured job in the city, whereas the migrants can always come back to obtain employment such as food vendors, food shop workers, pedicab drivers, semiformal-sector workers, and other informal vendors. In the case of pedicab drivers, they usually come to the city and rent the pedicab. Therefore, even though it is not their main employment, they can always easily return to the city and recommence their work whenever they want, because there is always a demand for these services.
Those who applied this pattern 47
Food shop workers 2
Food vendors 24
Other informal vendors 8
Pedicab drivers 8
Semiformal-sector workers 2
Service workers 3
Those who applied this pattern 58
Construction workers 11
Food shop workers 7
Food vendors 25
Industrial workers 3
Other informal vendors 6
Pedicab drivers 1
Semiformal-sector workers 2
Service workers 3
ORIGIN
AREA SURAKARTA
SIMPLE PATTERN: REGULAR CIRCULATION TO SURAKARTA
Tthe migrant left the origin area to Surakarta and returned, then back again to Surakarta. The circular migrants always come to Surakarta to do circular migration.
MULTIPLE PATTERN: MULTIPLE DESTINATIONS SURAKARTA AND OTHER CITIES
ORIGIN
AREA SURAKARTA
OTHER CITIES
JAKARTA, BANDUNG, SURABAYA, SEMARANG, YOGYAKARTA, ETC
The migrants who left from the origin area to Surakarta return to origin then go to other destinations. This type of circularity is applied for those who have less-permanet job in the city or one with short term contract system.
Fig. 6. Circulation pattern of rural-urban migrants
The multiple pattern of circulation involves multiple destinations where the circularity is directed from the side of origin area. The migrants who left from the origin area to Surakarta to work then return to their origin at some point, then go on to other destinations. This type of circularity is applied for those who have less permanent employment in the city or those with short- term contract systems, such as construction workers that have a more permanent job in rural area as farm workers. They usually work in agriculture sector in rural areas, but migrate to urban areas for supplementary income during time periods where less labor is needed in agriculture. Therefore, they can work on daily rates for construction projects, upon which they can also select many different cities, depending on the location of projects. The multiple pattern is also found among food shop workers, particularly burjo seller who come from West Java, where they have the regular rolling system which allows the migrants workers to return home after four months of work in the city. They will stay in the village for around two weeks to a month, before the employer sends them to another city.
OTHER CITIES
The migrants practice multiple circularity to the same area, then move to other city and do multiple circularity in the new city. Migrants usually stay longer in one city before move to other city. Involve migrant’s personal decision to move to new city. Usually motivated by better market potentials in the new city or stagnant condition in Surakarta. Changing destination are less often than the other type. Applied in the case of food vendors, other industrial workers, informal vendors.
ORIGIN
AREA SURAKARTA
3
4 1
2 5
7
8 6
MULTIPLE DESTINATIONS 1
OTHER CITIES ORIGIN
AREA SURAKARTA
5
6 1
2 3
7
8 4
Rural migrants do circular migration to Surakarta, come back to the origin area, then do the next circulation pattern to other city. But there always be chance to do another circularity in Surakarta. The circularity usually driven by work demand in other city and the rolling employment system. Changing destination are more often while the period of stay in one migratory period is usually shorter. Applied in the case of construction workers and food-shop workers with rolling employement system.
MULTIPLE DESTINATIONS 2
Fig. 7. Multiple pattern with multiple destinations
In the multiple pattern, two types of multiple destination were practiced in terms of movement to other cities. While the circularity of the construction workers and food shop sellers are more driven by the work demand in other cities and employment systems, the other type of circularity also depends on migrant decisions to move to other cities. In the case of food vendors, industrial workers, and other informal vendors, the decision to move to other cities are usually decided by considering the market potential. This type of decision usually requires a longer time.
Thus, this type of job usually involves multiple circularity to the same area, then moves to other cities, and then conducts multiple circularity in the new city. But in the case of construction workers and food shop workers, destinations change found more often, while the period of stay in one migratory period is also usually shorter. This situation is described in Figure 7.
3.3 Remittance use and its contribution 3.3.1 Remittance use for rural household
From primary data collection, 66.6% of the migrants are main income earners for the household. Rural-urban migrants who send the largest amount of remittances to the rural household relative to their earnings in the city are construction workers and service workers. Both of them send more than 60% of their earnings in the city to their families in rural areas. Meanwhile, industrial workers and pedicab drivers send less remittances to their family. In comparison to the others, these two types of job also gain the lowest income. The rationale that they send smaller amounts of money is because they use the rest of the income to fulfil their daily needs in the city.
Table 4 shows the distribution of average remittances from each type of job.
Table 4. Average remittance of each type of job
Job Type in the City Average Income in the City (Rp)
Average of Remittance (Rp)
%
Food vendors 1,764,286 920,408 52.2
Food shop workers 1,822,222 1,055,556 57.9
Other informal vendors 2,046,429 1,142,857 55.8
Construction workers 2,000,000 1,290,909 64.5
Industrial workers 1,583,333 400,000 25.3
Pedicab drivers 1,188,889 438,889 36.9
Service workers 1,666,667 1,016,667 61.0
Semiformal-sector workers 1,875,000 662,500 35.3
Average 1,775,714 946,078 52.9
The most dominant use of remittances is for consumptive use in the household, particularly to fulfil daily needs of the family. Data on remittance usage is presented in Table 5. The result from all respondents is compiled and summarized per expense item, and it is found that on average, the use of remittance for daily consumption (food) of family shares amount to 39.2% of the total