2 - Indonesian Nurse Migration and Global Demand for Care Worker

Indonesia has officially sent its nurses to Japan under the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) Cooperation Program approved by the government of Indonesia and Japan in 2008. IJEPA has two programs for Indonesian nurse placement, namely nurse candidate and caregiver candidate programs. Indonesia has also had an MoU in the Field of Health Cooperation between the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 2017 and with Germany since last two years. This paper aims to examine the phenomenon of Indonesian nurse migration which is an increasingly important pattern of Indonesian labor migration, with special focused on understanding of preparation and placement program and the advantage of working abroad in improving the quality of Indonesian nurses.

This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in 2018 and 2021. The quantitative study was conducted in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi, involving 313 respondents who worked as nurses in public and private hospitals. Some of the respondents have experienced working abroad. The qualitative study was conducted in Jakarta and Cilacap district, through in-depth interview with 22 informants, consisted of 12 Indonesian returning nurses and care workers from many countries and 10 nurses who were working in Indonesia and had no work experience abroad. The interviews recordings were verbatim transcribed. The data was analysed by descriptive statistics (quantitative data) and descriptive analysis (qualitative data). Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis for in-depth understanding on the phenomenon related to international migration of Indonesian nurses and care workers.

Co-Author 1
Mita Noveria