Indonesia- Transmigration

Indonesia- Transmigration

1. Effects

   • Economic
     • Cost a lot to move everyone
     • lack of jobs for migrants
     • poor people lack jobs and have no farming skills which is the main job provider in rural areas
     • average earnings were higher in rural Java than any resettlement island
   • Environmental
     • Rainforests destroyed
     • "transmigration villages" built on land never previously affected by human activity
     • natural resources used up
     • soil in new land not as useful for growing crops as volcanic soils of Java
   • Social
     • fighting between migrants
     • communal clashes between different ethnic groups
     • quality of life of migrants not improved
     • poverty and overpopulation in Java not reduced
     • fears from native populations of "Javanization" and "Islamization", strengthens separatist movements

2. Policy

   • People were to be moved from overcrowded, densely populated Indonesian islands e.g. Java and Bali to sparsely populated areas e.g. Sulawesi and Malaysia
   • Initiative of Dutch colonial government
     • Later continued by Indonesian Government

3. Future

   • Policy has been quietly dropped

4. Reasons

   • overcrowding
   • strain on resources
   • in Java there are more than 600 people per sq km
   • In Malaysia there are less than 10 people per sq km
   • 3million people added to Java's population each year
   • Squatter settlements in Java grow by 100,000+ people each year
   • uneven population distribution