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Inter-village differences in out-migration in West

Article in The Journal of tropical geography · February 1979 Source: PubMed

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Amongst the sukubangsa, or ethnic communi• representative of the small proportion of villages ties of , the Minangkabau of West in the province which are not accessible by road. Sumatra have long been noted for their mobility. Within each nagari, which range in population In the 1971 Indonesian Census, 10.7 per cent of from 1,525 to 11,372, usually one or two jorong West Sumatra-born people were enumerated or hamlets were chosen for study, and within outside the province (Hugo, 1977), scattered these jorong from 20 to 40 households were throughout Indonesia but with major concentra• selected, with the help of village and hamlet ofl5- tions in the east coast of Sumatra and in Western cials, as representative of the households within Java, including . In the last few years each hamlet. The representativeness of the sam• there have been several studies of Minangkabau ple households was checked by comparing the migration, notably the major work by Mochtar migration characteristics of these households Naim (1973), and also studies by Evers (1972), with information gained from key informants on Swift (1971) and Thamrin (1972). These studies the general character of migration from the have provided an excellent basis for understand• jorong or nagari, and with data on departures ing the general features of and reasons for mig• from the nagari obtained from village records. ration from West Sumatra, the flow of population The data obtained from the household interviews through the provincial capital of Padang, and the can also be compared with data from the 1971 social and economic characteristics of Minang• Census. For example. Table 1 compares the kabau migrant communities outside West Suma• destinations of migrants found in the household tra. This paper seeks to add to these studies by survey with the distribution of West Sumatra- analyzing a feature of Minangkabu migration born people recorded in the Census. The main which has not been fully explored by previous writers, and that is the varying character of mig• TABLE 1. MIGRANT DESTINATIONS: ration from village to village within West Su• A COMPARISON OF SURVEY AND CENSUS DATA matra. It attempts to describe and explain dif• ferences between groups of households in eleven PROVINCE 1971 CENSUS* 1970-71 SURVEYt nagari or villages in West Sumatra in three major aspects of migration: the intensity or rate of Aceh 3.2 4.0 migration, and the occupations and destinations North Sumatra 21.7 21.6 of migrants. Through this analysis the paper 16.8 30.5 aims not only to demonstrate the degree of 6.2 8.0 variation in Minangkabau migration, but also to 10.7 6.9 identify and illustrate the major factors in• Bengkulu 1.7 1.3 fluencing the character of migration from West Lampung 4.1 2.6 Sumatra. Jakarta 27.5 17.6 V^est Java 3.6 4.0 THE DATA Other Indonesia 4.4 3.6 The data on which the paper is based were collected in 325 household interviews in Decem• * Percentage distribution of W^est Sumatra-born people ber, 1970 and January, 1971, in eleven nagari in enumerated outside West Sumatra. central West Sumatra (Fig. 1). The eleven nagari Source: Compilation by Dr. G. Hugo from 1971 Cen• were chosen according to the main variations in ses data. tPercentage distribution of migrants according to their population density, agricultural systems and last province of residence outside West Sumatra. accessibility in the region, although there is no Source: Field Survey. 42 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY

Fig. 1. Province of West Sumatra: location of nagari in survey. ALARIC MAUDE 43 differences between the survey data and the younger migrants, using a larger set of questions. Census are that the survey appears to overesti• Since the information was mostly provided by mate the amount of migration from West Su• the relatives of the migrants, and only in a matra to Riau, and underestimate the amount to minority of cases by the migrants themselves, Jakarta. These differences can be explained in it is possible that some of the answers were in• two ways. First, the survey was carried out in accurate or incomplete, particularly for the old• rural areas and did not include any urban house• est generation of migrants, many of whom were holds, although it did include a number of non- no longer alive. However, as migration is gen• agricultural households. Judging from the data erally a well-established and accepted part of collected by Evers (1972), migration from the Minangkabau society, and as the vast majority main urban centre in West Sumatra, Padang, is of migrants maintain contact with their home predominantly to Jakarta and other cities in Java, villages, only a small number of households were and this migration stream was largely, and deli• either unable to provide information or were berately, left out of the survey. Second, the com• suspected of giving incorrect answers. bined de jure/de facto rule used in deciding where to enumerate people in the 1971 Census THE RATE OF OUT-MIGRATION appears to have led to the non-enumeration of Table 2 shows the rate of out-migration from many temporary migrants (Hugo, 1977), and this the group of households interviewed in each type of migration is particularly common in Riau, nagari, using as a measure of the rate of out- which was the nearest migration destination for migration the percentage of males aged 15 years all the villages in the survey. and over (in the younger two of the three genera• The households selected are therefore thought tions for whom data were collected) who are, to be reasonably representative, at least as far or have been, migrants. It is felt that this figure as their migration characteristics are concerned, is more accurate, and more relevant to present of rural households in central West Sumatra, conditions, than the figure for the rate of mig• with the exception of households in very isolated ration from all three generations. How can these areas. The small size of the total sample (325 rates of out-migration, and particularly the households), however, and of the sample in each variations between them, be explained? Ques• village (24-40 households), together with the tioning within each village, and statistical ana• method of selecting households, mean that the lysis of aggregate data for each group of house• data cannot be regarded as statistically rep• holds, suggest that two broad and inter-related resentative of either rural West Sumatra or each factors account for most of the differences bet• nagari. The study is therefore strictly a com• ween the villages. These factors are: (a) the parison of groups of households chosen from agricultural economy of the nagari, and (b) the eleven different villages in West Sumatra. varying extent to which migration has become institutionalized. The first factor belongs to what Information on migration was collected Germani (1965) has termed the objective level through household interviews conducted by a of analysis of migration, the second to the nor• team of five Minangkabau students. Apart from mative level. general questions about household composition, land ownership, occupations and attitudes to The majority of households interviewed (61.1 migration, information was sought on the mig• per cent) stated that economic problems, such as ration of the husband and wife in the house• shortage of land and lack of opportunities to hold, the wife's children aged 15 years and over earn money in the nagari, or the availability of (both male and female), the wife's brothers, the employment or other income-earning opportu• husband's brothers, the wife's mother's brothers nities in other parts of Indonesia, were the main and the husband's mother's brothers. Basic mig• reasons for migration from the nagari. It seems ration data were collected for 976 individuals likely, therefore, that variations between nagari spread over three generations, and more detailed in the extent to which households could support migration data were collected for 486 of the themselves from agriculture might explain varia- 44 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY

TABLE 2. MIGRATION RATES AND FACTORS

PERCENT INSTITUTION• EDUCA. MIGRATION HOUSEHOLDS SELF- ALIZATION TIONAL EFFECT OF NAGARI RATE* CASH SUFFI. OF LEVEL OF MI- CROPPINGt CIENCYt MIGRATION! MIGRANTS§ GRATION**

Kamang Mudik 37.2 23.7 6.1 34.4 42.3 68.0 Sungei Tarab 31.0 32.4 7.4 45.1 71.4 50.0 Rao Rao 60.0 20.0 3.3 64.1 10.3 72.5 Ganggo Hilir 51.0 23.7 4.3 40.5 29.8 56.8 Sulit Air 72.3 18.2 3.2 56.6 29.0 67.7 Simawang 57.2 53.1 2.4 16.1 9.8 66.7 Pasir 71.6 0 4.6 47.3 38.4 68.4 Pauh Kambar 28.2 45.8 2.0 13.6 14.8 33.3 Koto Dalam 21.9 63.6 2.6 0 15.0 45.5 Matur Mudik 59.3 47.6 3.7 26.3 32.6 70.0 Lawang 35.2 87.0 2.6 5.0 33.3 33.3

•Percentage of wife's sons aged 15 years and over, wife's brothers, and husband's brothers (including husband) who are, or have been migrants. tPercentage of households who sold part of their agricultural produce. tAverage number of months in year households are able to subsist from their own food production. II Percentage of household respondents who thought that migration from the nagari would still continue even if the local economy improved. § Percentage of migrants who had reached upper secondary school level or higher. ••Household respondents who thought that migration was good for the nagari, as a percentage of all responses other than no opinion. tions in the rate of out-migration. Several mea• The rate of out-migration does correlate well, sures of the agricultural economy of the groups however, with the percentage of households who of households sampled in each nagari were tested sell part of their agricultural produce (rg = .68), by rank correlation analysis for their relation• and with an index produced by combining this ships to out-migration. Both the average area of variable with the one measuring self-suf5ciency sawah owned by households, and the average in food production (r^= .72). These statistical number of months in the year households could correlations provide support for the contention subsist from their own food production, were that variations in rates of out-migration from found to have little or no statistical relationship villages in West Sumatra are related to the ex• to the rate of out-migration. The first measure is tent to which households are able to subsist and suspect a^yway because of the reluctance of earn income from agriculture. The poorer the households to give accurate information on land opportunities to make a living from agriculture, ownership, and because of variations between the greater the rate of out-migration. Rates of nagari in land quality and water supply, while the out-migration are high from households in den• second does not take account of the varying ex• sely populated hill villages such as Sulit Air and tent to which households supported themselves Rao Rao, where sawah and other arable land is through the sale of agricultural produce such as limited in relation to the size of the population, rubber (Ganggo Hilir), cinnamon and coffee (Rao and low from nagari such as Sungei Tarab and Rao), copra (Koto Dalam and Pauh Kambar), Kamang Mudik, which have comparatively large sugar (Lawang), vegetables (Matur Mudik), cas• areas of sawah, or from Koto Dalam and Lawang, sava (Simawang), and rice (Kamang Mudik and where the majority of households are engaged Sungei Tarab). in cash cropping (cf. Mochtar Naim, 1973, pp. ALARIC MAUDE 45

334-41). The relationship between out-migration TABLF 3. DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY and the agricultural economy, however, is partly INCOME RECEIVED FROM MIGRANTS (Percentage) indirect. Nagari with limited agricultural resour• PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD ces in relation to their population long ago devel• INCOME RECEIVED FROM oped trading activities and/or cottage industries NAGARI MIGRANTS as ways of supplementing their incomes.^ Many of the households interviewed in Pasir, for ex• 0 1-19 20-39 40-59 60-79 80-10( ample, were engaged in clothing manufacture, Kamang Mudik 76.3 23.7 0 0 0 0 while many in Rao Rao and Sulit Air were in• Sungei Tarab 94.1 5.9 0 0 0 0 volved in trading. In the Nineteenth Century these activities were largely confined to the local Rao Rao 35.0 42.5 10.0 5.0 7.5 0 market area centred on towns such as Solok (for Ganggo Hilir 84.2 15.8 0 0 0 0 Sulit Air), Batusangkar and Payakumbuh (for Sulit Air 27.2 24.2 21.2 9.1 12.1 6.1 Rao Rao), and Bukittinggi (for Pasir), but during Simawang 75.0 18.7 3.1 3.1 0 0 the twentieth century these villages found grow• Pasir 70.0 20.0 0 5.0 0 5.0 ing opportunities for their skills further afield, Pauh Kambar 79.2 16.7 4.2 0 0 0 both within West Sumatra but particularly in Koto Dalam 100.0 0 0 0 0 0 other provinces in Indonesia. Villages such as Matur Mudik 61.9 38.1 0 0 0 0 Koto Dalam and Kamang Mudik, on the other Lawang 82.6 13.0 4.3 0 0 0 hand, because of the lack of economic pressure in the past, have not developed trading or craft skills to the same extent, and consequently mig• however, complex. The degree of institutionaliza• rants from such villages have fewer opportu• tion of migration, as measured by the answers to nities to earn a living outside their nagari. this question, appears to be both a consequence of, and a contributor to, the rate of out-migration. Out-migration from each nagari also appears In villages with high rates of out-migration, such to be related to the extent to which migration as Sulit Air and Rao Rao, migration has been a has become institutionalized. Households were part of village life for well over a century, and asked whether migration from the nagari would young men not only grow up with the expecta• still continue even if the local economy improved. tion of becoming migrants themselves, but are In nagari with high rates of out-migration, house• generally expected to migrate temporarily as part holds tended to answer *yes', giving as reasons of the process of preparing for adulthood. Such that migration is *a tradition in the nagari', or villages have adjusted, largely successfully, to that people will still want to migrate to gain the problems resulting from heavy out-migration; experience. In nagari with low rates of out- many households, as well as village institutions, migration, households tended to answer 'no', and are now partly dependent on the income sent said that if the local economy improved there back by migrants (Table 3), and household res• would be no need to migrate. The rank order pondents tended to feel that migration had bene• correlation between the rate of out-migration fitted their village (Table 2). In these villages and the percentage of household respondents migration has therefore become an established, who thought that out-migration would still con• institutionalized part of village life, and out- tinue even if the local economy improved was migration is not only stimulated by the attitudes = .75. The reasons for this relationship are, and expectations concerning migration that have developed over a long period of time, but also ^See Graves, 1971, pp. 32-34 and Dobbin, 1977, pp. by the large number of migrants from these 26-38. Dobbin, writing of the Minangkabau region nagari already established in the rantau,^ who around the beginning of the nineteenth century, states that the hill villages, with limited areas suitable provide a network of contacts that greatly facili- for sawah agriculture, 'already had a tradition of specialization in artisan occupations, which required 2According to Mochtar Naim (1973, pp. 18-19), rantau concentration on the market, ability to adapt to change originally meant a lowland or riverine area, but in and willingness to leave the village' (p. 38). this context means the area outside one's homeland. 46 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY

tates further migration. On the other hand, in the rantau is furthermore considered as nagari like Koto Dalam and Sungei Tarab, where preparation for entering the realm of adult• hood, and it is held to be required as the the rate of out-migration is comparatively low means of fulfilling one of the Nine Pillars and where there appear to have been few of Law, "recognition of the greatness of migrants before the 1930s, migration is not yet the world." an established part of village life, and village However, the data presented earlier sug• attitudes towards migration appear to be less gest that the extent to which temporary positive. Few households received income from migration has become institutionalized, migrants (the rank correlation coefficient between and is considered as part of the prepara• the rate of out-migration and the proportion of tion for entering adulthood, varies con• households who received income from migrants siderably from nagari to nagari. is rg = .88), and many household respondents tended to feel that migration had been harmful 2. Psychological factors, in particular a highly to their village. Migration from such villages is developed achievement motive (Swift, therefore restricted by attitudes which do not 1971, p. 263, and Mitchell, 1969) which encourage migration, by the limited demonstra• leads the Minangkabau to search for op• tion effect resulting from the small number of portunities to improve their economic previous migrants, and by the fact that potential position and social status outside West migrants have a much more restricted network Sumatra if sufficient opportunities are not of contacts in the rantau. available locally. While the two factors discussed above explain 3. The pattern of regional development a large part of the variation in rates of out- during both the colonial period and since migration from the nagari studied, they do not independence, in which opportunities for provide a full explanation for the high overall the Minangkabau in administration, com• level of out-migration from West Sumatra. Both merce and wage employment have develop• Mochtar Naim (1973, p. 371) and Swift (1971, p. ed faster in other parts of Indonesia than 257) have pointed out that temporary migration m comparatively isolated, resource-poor became a feature of Minangkabau society well West Sumatra (Swift, 1971, p. 267, and before population pressure on agricultural re• Mochtar Naim, 1973, p. 364). sources made it an economic necessity for many 4. The strong interest of the Minangkabau villagers. This is a question which has been in education, which made many of them quite fully studied by other writers, and only migrate to further their education in lava, an outline answer, based partly on field work and or to obtain appropriate employment after partly on the existing literature, will be given completing their studies (Mochtar Naim, here. The main additional reasons for out-migra• 1973, pp. 357-61, and Evers, 1972, p. 19). tion amongst the Minangkabau appear to be: Although education is a factor in migration 1. Socio-cultural factors, in particular the from West Sumatra, it does not appear to explain role and position of men in a matrilineal variations in the rate of migration between nagari. family system (Taufik Abdullah, 1968, and Table 2 summarizes the educational characteris• Mochtar Naim, 1973, pp. 389-91). Taufik tics of recent migrants from the households inter• Abdullah writes: viewed in each nagari, using as a measure of educational attainment the percentage of mig• The custom of going to the rantau can be rants who had reached upper secondary school regarded as an institutional outlet for the frustrations of unmarried young men, who level or higher. It can be seen that in some lack individual responsibility and rights in nagari, especially the two sawah-nch villages their own society. To a married man, going Kamang Mudik and Sungei Tarab, a high pro• to the rantau means a temporary release portion of migrants had reached upper secon• from two families' conflicting expectations, pressed upon him as a husband and a dary level or higher. Since the economic pres• member of the maternal family. Going to sure to migrate is not strong in these two ALARIC MAUDE 47 nagari, a large proportion of those villagers who OCCUPATIONS have migrated have done so for educational The occupations in the rantau of 915 male reasons, and this has been helped by the ability migrants spread over three generations are shown of families with adequate land to afford higher in Table 4, for each nagari or group of households education for their children. Migration through surveyed. It is apparent that the occupations of education has also been important in Pasir and migrants vary quite markedly from nagari to Matur Mudik, both nagari which have had nagari, and although the Minangkabau as a whole access to good schools for many decades. There are regarded as having an aptitude and preference is no overall correlation, however, between the for trading (Mochtar Naim, 1973, pp. 228-29, and educational level of migrants from each nagari Swift, 1971, pp. 265-67), in five out of the eleven and the rate of out-migration (rg = .05), a find• groups of households studied trading was not the ing which is supported by Mochtar Naim's predominant occupation of migrants. analysis at the kabupaten level (Mochtar Naim, 1973, p. 245). This may seem surprising in view There are several reasons for this variation in of Schrieke's statement in 1928 that the urge occupations. First, as mentioned earlier, there is for education was strongest in land-scarce vil• the varying extent to which villages had develop• lages (Schrieke, 1955, p. 132) and Graves' com• ed non-agricultural activities such as trading or ments on the interest in education shown in cottage industries before the phase of increased the nineteenth century by villages with high out-migration which began early in this century. rates of out-migration (Graves, 1971, p. 323). Rao Rao and Sulit Air, for example, have a long However, education was not the only avenue to tradition of trading, and the overwhelming majo• alternative employment available to these vil• rity of migrants from these nagari are traders, lages, and many of them opted for trading, cot• while Pasir has long been a centre for clothing tage industries or wage employment instead, manufacture as a cottage industry, and the majo• while access to good education seems to have rity of migrants are either tailors (classified in been determined partly by the location of good Table 4 under craftsman) or traders in clothing. schools during the colonial period, and in more On the other hand, nagari such as Kamang recent years by the ability of households to Mudik, Koto Dalam and Ganggo Hilir do not afford post-primary education for their children. appear to have developed trading or craft skills

TABLE 4. OCCUPATIONS OF MIGRANTS

EM• CRAFTS. LABOU- ARMED STU• FARMER TRADER PLOYEE* MAN RERt FORCES DENT OTHER m

Kamang Mudik 1.8 20.0 34.5 7.3 10.9 10.9 7.3 7.3 55 Sungei Tarab 0 26.7 28.9 2.2 4.4 2.2 35.6 0 45 Rao Rao 0 87.1 5.2 4.5 0 0. 1.3 1.9 155 Ganggo Hilir 5.5 16.4 60.2 7.0 1.6 3.9 2.3 3.1 128 Sulit Air 0.6 79.6 4.3 1.9 2.5 3.1 6.8 1.2 162 Simawang 5.7 43.1 12.2 2.4 27.6 1.6 0.8 6.5 123 Pasir 0 44.3 24.3 22.9 0 4.3 2.9 1.4 70 Pauh Kambar 2.9 61.8 8.8 11.8 2.9 0 2.9 8.8 34 Koto Dalam II.4 17.1 2.9 17.1 34.3 5.7 8.8 2.9 35 Matur Mudik 7.6 10.6 31.8 21.2 10.6 10.6 6.1 1.5 66 Lawang 0 35.7 28.6 9.5 2.4 7.1 7.1 9.5 42

•Includes teachers, government employees and employees of private firms and state corporations. tincludes urban labourers and rural workers such as rubber tappers and road workers. |N = number of migrants from the nagari for whom information on ocupation was obtained. 48 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY to the same extent, and migrants from these in Simawang and Koto Dalam. Simawang is a nagari have tended to seek other occupations in village with very limited agricultural resources the rantau. located on hilly, poorly watered land along the shores of Lake Singkarak, and probably has the Second, the comparatively high proportion of lowest per capita income of the eleven nagari employees amongst migrants from nagari like studied (cf. Schrieke, 1955, p. 102). Most fami• Kamang Mudik, Sungei Tarab, Ganggo Hilir, lies have not been able to aflpord much post• Matur Mudik, Lawang and Pasir can be largely primary education for their children, and early explained by the comparatively high standard of migrants from Simawang took jobs as rubber education of these migrants. This relationship tappers, road construction workers, petty traders between education, employment in government and, in more recent years, as labourers in the oil and business, and migration in fact dates from towns of Pekanbaru and Dumai. In Koto Dalam, the 1870s, when the earlier development of edu• a predominantly coconut growing village on the cation in West Sumatra than in the rest of the coastal lowlands north of Padang, the economic island enabled Minangkabau to obtain posts in pressure to migrate has been much lower than the rapidly developing Dutch administrative sys• in Simawang. Non-agricultural skills are not well tem throughout Sumatra (Graves, 1971, pp. 341- developed and educational levels are comparat• 42). In some villages migration through education ively low, and consequently the largest group of was seen as a solution to growing economic pres• migrants from the households surveyed are sure, as seems to have been the case in Matur labourers. Some migrants from these two villages Mudik, Pasir and Ganggo Hilir. In Matur Mudik, have also become farmers, but despite the fact this response was facilitated by the establish• that the majority of migrants come from agri• ment, early in this century, of a school to train cultural households most prefer other occu• surveyors, located nearby in Matur, and this led pations. This is partly because of the low status to the migration of young men from the nagari of farming as an occupation (Swift, 1971, p. 264), all over the then Netherlands East Indies. In and partly because agriculture does not fit in Ganggo Hilir, on the other hand, the com• with the temporary nature of much of the mig• paratively high standard of education of migrants ration from Simawang and Koto Dalam. is partly attributed by village informants to the fact that in the first two decades of this century some migrants from the nagari made money A final reason for the diflferences between planting rubber, especially in Malaya, and the nagari in the occupations of migrants is the fact income they sent back to their families helped that migrants very frequently follow the same to educate the next generation, who in turn occupations in the rantau as previous migrants sought jobs in government administration or from their family. This is to be expected given with Dutch firms in the rapidly developing plant• the strong role of family connections in migration ation district centred on Medan. In other villages, (57 per cent of migrants had lived with relatives such as Kamang Mudik and Sungei Tarab, the in their first place of residence as a migrant), economic pressure to migrate has not been so and in obtaining employment or learning skills strong and, as explained earlier, many of those (Mochtar Naim, 1973 p. 148). Consequently, who have migrated from these nagari have been initial diflPerences between villages in migrant people with a good education who did not want occupational characteristics, whether the result to return to village life, but instead sought em• of the factors discussed above or the result of ployment appropriate to their educational attain• chance historical accident, tend to be preserved ment. over several generations, despite a considerable increase in the volume of migration. The main In nagari lacking a tradition of trading or cot• exception to this tendency towards continuity tage industry, and where levels of education are in occupational specialization is a switch from low, many migrants have become labourers, des• low status occupations like labouring or farming pite the dislike felt by Minangkabau of low to preferred occupations such as trading or ad• status work for others. This has been the case ministration. In Simawang, for example, cross- ALARIC MAUDE 49 tabulation of occupations by year of birth in• West Sumatra: in 1972, the estimated regional dicates that while the majority of migrants from gross domestic product (RGDP) per capita in the nagari born before 1910 were labourers, the real terms was 70 per cent higher in North majority of younger migrants were petty traders. Sumatra, 183 per cent higher in Riau, 36 per This suggests that migration may have led to an cent higher in Iambi and 49 per cent higher in increase in trading skills amongst villagers. In South Sumatra than in West Sumatra (Hendra Matur Mudik and Ganggo Hilir, farmers are Esmara, 1975). lakarta, although more distant, only found amongst migrants born before 1900 is the dominant economic, administrative and and 1910 respectively. There is no evidence, educational centre in Indonesia, with a per capita however, for this shift in occupations in Rao Rao RGDP 89 per cent higher than in West Sumatra, and Sulit Air, where the earliest generation of and in the 1971 Census it had the largest number migrants for whom records were obtained were of in-migrants (from all provinces) of any pro• already almost entirely employed as traders. vince in Indonesia (Hugo, 1977). The relative im• Migration from Koto Dalam is too recent for any portance of these destinations has changed con• shift in occupations to have become apparent. siderably over time. Figure 2 shows the location of migrants from the eleven nagari by year of DESTINATIONS birth groups, and reveals the declining role of West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Iambi, Aceh Table 5 shows the destinations of 971 male and Malaysia as destinations for migrants, and migrants from the 11 nagari studied, using as a the increasing importance of Riau, lakarta and definition of destination the most recent place West lava. These changes are a result of a of residence of a migrant outside his home nagari. number of factors, including improvements in Note that as the table includes data for three transportation within Indonesia during most of generations of migrants, not all of the individuals this century, and the breaking down of feelings represented were still alive at the time of the of ethnic separation as a result of the growth survey, and many of those still living had return• ed to their village and were no longer resident in the rantau. The table also records an estimate of the average distance of the places of residence of migrants from their nagari, weighted accord• ing to the locational distribution of the migrants. Two general features of the locational distribu• tion of West Sumatran migrants may be noted. First, as might be expected from the occupations followed by migrants, migration from West Sumatra has been largely to urban areas and smaller central places, and very few migrants settled in villages or other rural settlements. Second, less than 20 per cent of the migrants were recorded as having settled within West Sumatra, and the destinations of the vast majo• rity of migrants were the neighbouring provinces of North Sumatra, Riau and Iambi, South Su• matra, and the national capital, lakarta. Migra• tion to the Sumatran provinces can be largely ex• plained in terms of their proximity and the op•

portunities they oflPer for business and employ• I 1 , , , ment as a result of economic growth based on 1850-99 1900-09 1910-19 1920-29 1930-39 1940-59 YEAR OF BIRTH export crops and oil. All four provinces have per Fig, 2, Migrant destinations by year, 1850-99 capita income levels significantly higher than in to 1940-59, o

TABLE 5. LAST PROVINCE OR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE OF MIGRANTS (percentages)

MEAN NORTH WEST SOUTH BENG• LAM• JAK• WEST OTHER MA• OTHER MIGRATION ACEH SUMA• SUMA• RIAU IAMBI SUMA• KULU PUNG ARTA JAVA INDO• LAY• COUN• DISTANCE N* TRA TRA TRA NESIA SIA TRIES (km)

Kamang Mudik 0 14.0 31.2 25.0 0 3.1 1.6 1.6 17.2 1.6 1.6 3.1 0 552 64 §

Sungei Tarab 4.1 4.1 18.4 22.4 0 0 0 0 30.6 16.3 2.0 0 2.0 924 49

Rao Rao 5.2 17.4 14.8 37.4 0.6 0.6 0 2.6 14.8 1.3 1.3 3.9 0 584 155 >

Ganggo Hilir 10.4 54.9 9.0 9.0 0 0 0 0 5.6 0.7 0.6 6.9 2.8 586 144

Sulit Air 0 2.4 12.7 26.5 4.2 15.1 4.2 6.0 16.3 4.8 5.4 0.6 L8 738 166

Simawang 0 4.0 24.8 44.8 20.8 2.4 0 0 2.4 0 0 0.8 0 286 125 § 3 Pasir 0 13.3 17.3 8.0 10.7 2.7 0 2.7 32.0 5.3 6.7 0 1.3 938 75 Pauh Kambar 0 35.1 0 5.4 18.9 8.1 2.7 2.7 24.3 0 2.7 0 0 840 37 o Koto Dalam 0 5.7 40.0 31.4 11.4 0 0 0 5.7 2.8 2.9 0 0 403 35 o Matur Mudik 5.2 3.9 35.1 16.9 9.1 14.3 0 1.2 6.5 2.6 5.2 0 0 563 77 o Lawang 2.3 22.7 27.3 2.3 2.3 11.4 2.3 2.3 13.6 6.8 6.8 0 0 798 44

All migrants 3.1 16.9 18.8 23.8 6.3 5.4 1.0 2.1 13.7 3.1 2.9 2.1 0.9 636 971

*N = Number of migrants from the nagari for whom information on place of residence was obtained. ALARIC MAUDE 51 of Indonesian nationalism, both of which made changes in the destinations of migrants noted long distance migration easier, as well as the earlier, changes which are found in each of the rapid growth of lakarta since independence, three nagari mentioned, but also reflects the fact the development of the oil industry in Riau, and that over time traders from these nagari have the tightening of immigration restrictions in learned of opportunities in the more distant pro• Malaysia. The overall effect of these changes has vinces, and have acquired the resources and in• been to increase the average distance of migration formation needed for longer distance migration. from West Sumatra, but, as noted later, the ex• The main exception to this generalization, tent of change in destinations, and consequently amongst the nagari studied, is Simawang, where in migration distance, has varied from nagari to despite growing involvement in trading and a nagari. lengthy history of migration there has been no change in the locational distribution of migrants, Variations between the nagari or groups of and migration from the nagari has remained pre• households in the location of migrants can be dominantly short distance movement to Riau, explained in several ways, although these ex• Iambi and places within West Sumatra (see Fig. planations cannot be tested rigorously. Where 3). The explanation for this lack of locational trading is the predominant occupation, and mig• change probably lies in the comparatively recent ration has been going on for a long time and development of trading as a migrant occupation at a high rate, migrants are likely to be well dis• in the nagari, and the suspected low income of persed in their locations, as in Rao Rao, Sulit households, which makes long distance migration Air and Pasir (see Fig. 3). This dispersed distri• difficult. Labouring, previously the predominant bution pattern is not only a result of the overall occupation amongst Simawang migrants and

MALAYSIA

SUMATRA!

WEST SUMATRA^-- V;jAMBl\ V'fSOUThP^;) BENGKULU v^SUMATRA ) LAMPUNGJ JAKARTA 20% WEST JAVA GANGGO HILIR

SIMAWANG PASIR Fig. 3. Destinations of migrants from three nagari. 52 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY still the mam occupation of Koto Dalam mig• a migrant, while in Ganggo Hilir the proportion rants, is closely associated with short distance was 70 per cent. Family connections are less migration, both within West Sumatra and Riau important in determining the location of mig• and Jambi. It is frequently a temporary job rants who have obtained government employ• undertaken to supplement family income, and ment, as these migrants have to go wherever the low income of migrants and the short-term they are appointed. Consequently, the propor• and often circular nature of their migration tion of migrants who lived with relatives in restrict the distances over which they move. their first place of residence as a migrant was There are also fewer opportunities, or greater only 33 per cent in Kamang Mudik, 48.6 per competition from other ethnic groups, for cent in Sungei Tarab and 50 per cent in Matur labourers in North Sumatra, southern Sumatra Mudik, while the proportion of migrants for and Java. Where many migrants are employees, whom ^transferred on duty' or ^appointed there' on the other hand, their locations are likely to was given as the reason for their most recent be relatively dispersed, as in Kamang Mudik, place of residence as a migrant was 11.5 per Matur Mudik, Ganggo Hilir, Pasir and Sungei cent in Kamang Mudik, 17.1 per cent in Sun• Tarab, even where migration from the village is gei Tarab and 34.4 per cent in Matur Mudik, comparatively recent. Migrants working as em• compared with none in Rao Rao and Koto Da• ployees are most likely to be found in West lam, 5.9 per cent in Sulit Air and 6.2 per cent Sumatra, as government officers, and in major in Pauh Kambar. commercial and administrative centres such as Medan, Pekanbaru and Jakarta. Variations in the locational distribution of migrants from eleven nagari therefore appear to Variations between nagari in the location of be broadly related to several factors. The most migrants also appear to be partly the result of important is the occupational pattern of mig• the chance location of successful pioneer mig• rants. The relationship between occupation and rants. For example, according to informants in the degree of dispersion of migrants suggested Rao Rao, men from the nagari were the first earlier is supported by an analysis of mean mig• traders in several districts in Riau province over ration distances by occupation. For farmers the 100 years ago, and their success helped to make mean migration distance was 271 km, for labou• Riau the most important destination for migrants rers (rural and urban) 356 km, for craftsman from the village. In Ganggo Hilir, the predomi• 481 km, for employees 566 km and for traders nance of North Sumatra in the location of mig• 599 km. In some nagari the location of migrants rants from the nagari (see Fig. 3) was partly at• is also related to chance historical circumstances, tributed to a Dutch administrator, who in the and possibly to the duration of migration from last century encouraged people from the area the village. facing economic problems to migrate to the developing city of Medan, and to the success of CONCLUSION some early migrants in obtaining positions in This paper has examined three aspects of Dutch enterprises and government administra• Minangkabau migration — the rate or intensity tion in North Sumatra. Once migrants were of migration, and the occupations and destina• successfully established in an area other migrants tions of migrants — and has attempted to de• from the same nagari were likely to join them, monstrate the varied character of migration from as a result of the information sent back to the West Sumatra by a comparative analysis of mig• village and as a consequence of the role of ration from households in eleven Minangkabau family connections in migration, discussed in villages. The villages studied differ mainly in the the previous section (see also the example in intensity and duration of migration, from nagari Graves, 1971, p. 175). In Rao Rao, for example, like Koto Dalam, with a low rate and a short 67 per cent of the younger migrants for whom history of migration, to villages like Sulit Air, more detailed migration data was collected lived with a high rate and a long history of migration, with relatives in their first place of residence as and in the occupations of migrants, according to ALARIC MAUDE 53 the proportions of labourers, traders and em• ful. On the other hand, where out-migration is ployees. The main reasons for these variations a long-standing and institutionalized part of have been discussed, and the relationships bet• village life, is generally considered to be of ween the three aspects of migration considered benefit to the village, and where there are large in the paper, and the factors explaining variations numbers of migrants already established in the in the character of migration, are summarized rantau, measures designed to reduce the econo• in Figure 4. mic pressure to migrate are likely to have much The material presented in the paper suggests less effect on out-migration. Out-migration from not only that generalizations about Minangkabau many Minangkabau villages therefore seems cer• migration may conceal a great deal of variation tain to continue for the foreseeable future. between villages, but also that policies designed to reduce or redirect out-migration are likely to ACKNOWLEDGEMENT have different effects in different villages. It has I wish to record my thanks to the Lembaga been shown that not only do groups of house• Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, for permission to holds in different villages vary in their rate of undertake research in Indonesia; to officials of out-migration, but that they also vary in their the Province of West Sumatra, for their assis• attitudes towards migration. Where out-migration tance; to the Wali Nagari and people of the has not yet become an established part of village life, and is generally not considered to have been eleven villages on which the study is based, for of benefit to the village, measures to reduce out- their willingness to provide information; to Drs. migration by stimulating the development of the Zahiri Agustam, Sdr. O. Sanit and Dr. Mochtar local or regional economy may be quite success- Naim, for help in field work; to Sjamsoelbahri Salim, Zainuddin Amir, Sabri Sabirin, Sjaiful Harun and Nardy, for undertaking household RATE AND ECONOMIC DURATION OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION interviews; and to Jenny Elliott for typing, PRESSURE MIGRATION OF MIGRATION Frances Robertson and Cherry Smerdon for com• puting and Andrew Little for cartographic work.

REFERENCES .DEVELOPMENT OF Dobbin, C. (1977), 'Economic change in Minangkabau NON-AGRICULTURAL SKILLS (INCLUDING as a factor in the rise of the Padri movement, EDUCATION ) 1784-1830', Indonesia, No. 23. Evers, H.D. (1972), 'Preliminary notes on migration patterns of a Sumatran town*, Sumatra Research Bulletin, VoL 2, No. 1.

OCCUPATIONS Germani, G. (1965), 'Migration and acculturation', in OF MIGRANTS Hauser, P.M. (ed.), Handbook for Social Research in Urban Areas (Paris). Graves, E. (1971), The Ever-Victorious Buffalo: How

REINFORCEMENT the Minangkabau of Indonesia solved their "Colo• HISTORICAL THROUGH FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES nial Question" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Univer• CONNECTIONS sity of Wisconsin). Hendra, Esmara (1975), 'Regional income disparities', Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 11, DESTINATIONS p. 48. OF MIGRANTS Hugo, G. (1977), 'Indonesia: patterns of population movement to 1971', in Pryor, R.J. (ed.), Migration Fig. 4. Migration characteristics and factors. and Development in Southeast Asia (forthcoming). 54 THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY

Mitchell, I.G. (1969), The socio-cultural environment Swift, M.G. (1971), 'Minangkabau and modernization', and mental disturbance: three Minangkabau case in Hiatt, L.R. & Jayawardena, C. (eds.), Anthropo• histories', Indonesia, No. 7, p. 130. logy in Oceania (Sydney).

Mochtar Naim, (1973), Merantau: Minangkabau Volun• Taufik Abdullah (1968), 'Adat and Islam: aji examina• tary Migration (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univer• tion of conflict in Minangkabau', Indonesia, No. 2, sity of Singapore). p. 6.

Schrieke, B. (1955), Indonesian Sociological Studies, Thamrin (1972), Masalah Merantau Orang Minang- Part I (The Hague). (Padang).

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