Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: IDN31584 Country: Date: 29 March 2007

Keywords: Indonesia – West – Employment – Economy

This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Questions 1. Please provide information on the employment prospects in for a non-Chinese Christian, bearing in mind education and work experience.

RESPONSE

1. Please provide information on the employment prospects in Kupang for a non- Chinese Christian, bearing in mind education and work experience.

No information could be located which specifically addressed the issue of whether a skilled non-Chinese Christian would be able to access employment in Kupang, in the Indonesian province of . Nonetheless, information on employment and economic development, of a more general nature, was located and this follows below.

On 4 January 2007 The Post reported the comment that: “[i]n Bali, in the Riau Islands and , poverty, along with a lack of education and employment opportunities, pushes children into sexual exploitation”. The comment was reportedly made by “Ida Ayu Agung Mas, a prominent Balinese women’s activist and member of the House of Representatives” (‘Child sex tourism a growing concern’ 2007, Jakarta Post, 4 January – Attachment 1).

In June 2004 Indonesia’s LKBN ANTARA news service reported that “East Nusa Tenggara actually has economic potentials not inferior to those in the other parts of Indonesia” and that “it is still unfortunate that East Nusa Tenggara still did not have adequate infrastructure to support its economic development” (‘Govt To Prioritize Infrastructure Development In E Nusa Tenggara, Minister Jacob Says’ 2004, LKBN ANTARA, 15 June – Attachment 2).

An undated information page on West Timor, published by the Program of Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) PreventConflict.org website, states that: “Unemployment in West Timor is 80% overall, in some places 100%. The number of West Timorese people living below the poverty line in West Timor rose from 30% in 1998 to 80% in 2000”. Further information follows:

West Timor has a predominantly agricultural economy in which the majority of crop cultivation is accomplished by shifting (slash-and-burn) methods. Timor’s main agricultural products include corn, rice, coffee, copra, and fruit. The island also produces eucalyptus, sandalwood, teak, bamboo, and rosewood. Small deposits of gold and silver can also be found.

The West Timorese people number among the poorest in the Malay Archipelago. West Timor has natural disadvantages, which are greater than ’s. It lacks the oil, coffee and tourist potential which East Timor. Poverty is endemic and widespread. Moreover, Unemployment in West Timor is 80% overall, in some places 100%. The number of West Timorese people living below the poverty line in West Timor rose from 30% in 1998 to 80% in 2000 (‘West Timor’ (undated), PreventConflict.org website http://www.preventconflict.org/portal/main/maps_wtimor_overview.php – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 4).

A February 2006 newsletter published by the Uniting Church quotes figure similar to those set out by the HPCR (in fact the information detailed by the Uniting Church is so similar to the information outline by the HPCR that it appears to have been sourced from either the HPCR webpage or from the HPCR’s original source rather than gathered independently from a separate source). See Attachment 5 (‘Feature project West Timor Economic Empowerment’ 2006, New Start, February no.1 http://uim.uca.org.au/__data/page/1520/%20UCOA%20Newstart%20News%2002- 06%20f.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 5).

An April 2004 paper published by Professor Takahiro Akita, of the International University of Japan, provided long-term analysis of regional income inequality in Indonesia looking at the period 1993 to 1999. Akita’s study notes of this period that “the capital city, Jakarta had the highest per capita GDP after excluding the mining sector throughout the period, while East Nusa Tenggara registered the smallest”. It is also noted that “East Nusa Tenggara registered the smallest labor productivity throughout the period”. Further to this:

The largest labor productivity was registered by East Kalimantan, while the smallest was by East Nusa Tenggara. …It is interesting to note that the oil/gas rich province of East Kalimantan had the largest labor productivity in the primary sector, while the smallest was by East Nusa Tenggara.

…In 1999, Central had the largest secondary sector’s share at 22%, which was followed by West Java and Jakarta, whereas and Irian Jaya had the smallest at 5%. On the other hand, Jakarta had the largest tertiary sector’s share at 77%, which was followed by and West Java, whereas East Nusatenggara had the smallest at 18% (Akita, T. 2004, ‘2004-3 Sectoral Decomposition of Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia A Comparison with Postwar Japan’, International University of Japan website, April http://www.iuj.ac.jp/research/wpdv04-3.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 3).

In May 2002 the World Bank published a report detailing extensive information on the economic development of Kupang. According to this 2002 report “[t]he number of the unemployment in Kupang is 4.8% from the total population”. Further details follow: The number of the unemployment in Kupang is 4.8% from the total population. According to the Local Development Planning Board of Kupang (BAPPEDA), the unemployment figure is said to be 11,233 people in 2000. The figure is people looking for work at the labour office. The underemployment in the is more prevalent (fishermen, farmers, traders, etc). There are little differences in the data, but from the field observation and interviews, one thing is sure, Kupang needs more job opportunities.

The government also planned to improve support to the industrial sector by improving the function of Tenau harbor and El Tari Airport, improving access to government facilities for investors, making policies to create a conducive environment to attract investors and enterprises.

The plans that the government made are very good, but it needs to be implemented immediately. Right now, aside from Semen Kupang [state-run cement producer] as the biggest industry, the traditional trade network seems to be the only viable system. This system also has a social function and has valuable information sharing function. The Semen Kupang is a state owned company with monopolistic tendencies. There is also a high economic cost in Kupang that makes the local investor unwilling to invest, not to mention the lack of services in Kupang. The Tenau harbor and El Tari airport mostly deals with imports rather than exports. The imported of goods in Kupang mostly come from 4 municipality in West Timor and . Kupang needs more stimulants to revive the local economy (‘Urban Sector Review For Indonesia Kupang City Report Final Report’ 2002, World Bank website, May http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/eap/eap.nsf/2c4ea74c4d42fe8d852568b60074a864/22aaa1fd4f 47d5b047256db00047d6fb/$FILE/UR-Citiesspeak-5.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 6).

Research published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests that women in East Nusa Tenggara have less access to the labour market than do men. The relevant extracts follow:

A survey on the school-to-work transition in Indonesia was carried out jointly by the ILO and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration in the first half of 2003, involving a sample of 2,180 young people (aged 15-24) and 90 enterprises. The survey was implemented in three regions: Jakarta (all districts), Central Java (covering , Demak and Kendal) and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) (focusing on Kupang).

…Gender and marital status: While employers and youth usually did not rate age as a very important factor in recruiting workers, a significant percentage of employers – up to 52 per cent of employers surveyed in NTT – saw gender as a very important factor in the recruitment of manual workers. Overall, 59 per cent of employers preferred to recruit young men, a figure that rose to 70 per cent in NTT. More than 40 per cent of employers in NTT also believed marital status was important in the recruitment of administrative/professional staff. In the light of both national legislation and International Labour Standards pledging equality of opportunity in employment, these findings point to the need for increased and improved awareness-raising about employers’ legal obligations (‘Survey on the School-to-Work transition in Indonesia (Summary of the Report)’ (undated), International Labour Organisation website http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/yen/report/iyenschwk.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 7).

The ILO’s report also provides information on: the relationship between education, skills and employment opportunities in East Nusa Tenggara; and the importance of informal networks for accessing employment. The tables in the annex of this report contain extensive employment data and are recommended for further information. In Central Java, the educational composition of job-seekers differs by sex dramatically. While over 55 per cent of the women have only junior high school or lower educational attainments, their male counterparts typically hold vocational and technical school certificates. In NTT, fewer women and men have education lower than junior high school but also fewer have diploma certificates or university degree.

…In NTT, 42 per cent of job-seekers believe that the minimum level of education needed to obtain a decent job is junior or senior high school and 22 per cent thinks that they require an undergraduate degree (Tables A7 in Annex 2). Among in-school youth, 46 per cent believe that an undergraduate or postgraduate degree is necessary. This suggests that in-school youth in NTT do not necessarily continue their higher education at university level in order to find a good job in the immediate vicinity. Rather, they may be waiting until better employment opportunities open up or plan to move to other areas in Indonesia. In the Jakarta area, on the other hand, in-school youth attach a much greater importance to obtaining a junior or general high school certificate or a professional diploma, while only 19 per cent believe a university degree is required. Around a quarter of all young job-seekers in all three regions put more faith in technical and vocational education, a preference that is shared to some extent by self- employed youth in Central Java and NTT. This is likely to reflect their greater experience in searching for a job and therefore their greater knowledge of the job market. Among self- employed youth, technical and vocational education may be the only avenue available for furthering their education.

It is remarkable that more than three-quarters of the in-school youth (more women than men) expect to complete at least an undergraduate degree (Table 6). This percentage is especially high among women in NTT at 85 per cent. Whether this preference in NTT for high levels of formal education is caused by the low availability of jobs or by a traditionally high value placed on education is unclear from the survey. It is likely that the greater variety of jobs in the Jakarta area steers more in-school youth towards completing a professional diploma rather than a university degree.

…Young people were asked how they had looked for jobs before finding their first employment. The most frequently mentioned method was the use of informal networks (friends and relatives: 47 per cent), followed by advertisements (20 per cent) (Figure 8). The extensive reliance on informal channels is not surprising, given the dominant role of small enterprises, the spread of the informal economy, and the underdevelopment of labour market intermediaries. Indeed, informal networks were used more frequently in the less developed NTT (53 per cent) than the more industrialized Central Java (44 per cent) and Jakarta (43 per cent).

…Where jobs for women are relatively scarce because of cultural reasons or managerial recruitment preferences, like in NTT, women became discouraged and found work only after a longer period. Discouragement and long spells of unemployment go hand in hand. As Figure 13 shows, women tended to apply for fewer jobs than men did. Moreover, this gender difference seems to be slightly increasing over time – a sign of discouragement (Sziraczki, G. & Reerink, A. 2003, ‘Report Of Survey On The School-To-Work Transition In Indonesia’, International Labour Organisation website, GENPROM Working Paper No. 14 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/gems/report/wp14.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007 – Attachment 8).

List of Sources Consulted Internet Sources: Search Engines Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/

Databases: FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIMA Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Country Research database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

List of Attachments

1. ‘Child sex tourism a growing concern’ 2007, Jakarta Post, 4 January. (FACTIVA)

2. ‘Govt To Prioritize Infrastructure Development In E Nusa Tenggara, Minister Jacob Says’ 2004, LKBN ANTARA, 15 June. (FACTIVA)

3. Akita, T. 2004, ‘2004-3 Sectoral Decomposition of Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia A Comparison with Postwar Japan’, International University of Japan website, April http://www.iuj.ac.jp/research/wpdv04-3.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007.

4. ‘West Timor’ (undated), PreventConflict.org website http://www.preventconflict.org/portal/main/maps_wtimor_overview.php – Accessed 29 March 2007.

5. ‘Feature project West Timor Economic Empowerment’ 2006, New Start, February no.1 http://uim.uca.org.au/__data/page/1520/%20UCOA%20Newstart%20News%2002- 06%20f.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007.

6. ‘Urban Sector Review For Indonesia Kupang City Report Final Report’ 2002, World Bank website, May http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/eap/eap.nsf/2c4ea74c4d42fe8d852568b60074a864/22a aa1fd4f47d5b047256db00047d6fb/$FILE/UR-Citiesspeak-5.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007.

7. ‘Survey on the School-to-Work transition in Indonesia (Summary of the Report)’ (undated), International Labour Organisation website http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/yen/report/iyenschwk.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007.

8. Sziraczki, G. & Reerink, A. 2003, ‘Report Of Survey On The School-To-Work Transition In Indonesia’, International Labour Organisation website, GENPROM Working Paper No. 14 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/gems/report/wp14.pdf – Accessed 29 March 2007.