4 - Remittance for Development: Government efforts and Experiences of Return Migrant Worker Communities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Remittances have been an important source of foreign exchange in Indonesia and a major income source in the migrant worker households. However, transforming both remittances and migrant workers to become the tools of development remains the huge task for the government in both national and local levels. This presentation aims to highlight a few successful cases on the linkages among migration, remittance, and development which can be used as a reference to the efforts in making migration for development really work. 

This presentation is developed from the author’s previous studies on the social, cultural and economic transformation from labour migration of Indonesian workers to South Korea, the initiatives of migrant workers’ communities in the villages, and the entrepreneurship of return migrants. Those studies were conducted in Yogyakarta Special Region Province, Indonesia during 2010-2016. The author also conducts additional desk study and in-depth interviews with relevance stakeholders to capture the recent development.
The presentation will discuss: (1) the dynamics of remittance inflows into Indonesia and the remittance potentials for increasing migrant workers’ economic welfare and fostering local economic development; (2) the Indonesian government’s efforts  to facilitate remittance inflows and to increase the capacity of migrant workers and their families in managing remittance including developing small businesses; (3) the response of two return migrants’ communities  on the government’s programs and their initiatives for utilizing economic and social remittances for supporting village development; and (4) the key factors and challenges in making migrant remittances work for local economic development.