See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11144776 Inter-village differences in out-migration in West Sumatra Article in The Journal of tropical geography · February 1979 Source: PubMed CITATIONS READS 6 65 1 author: Alaric Maude Flinders University 50 PUBLICATIONS 729 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Regional development in Kelantan, Malaysia View project Sustainability in school geography View project All content following this page was uploaded by Alaric Maude on 05 August 2017. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. INTER-VILLAGE DIFFERENCES IN OUT-MIGRATION IN WEST SUMATRA By ALARIC MAUDE Amongst the sukubangsa, or ethnic communi• representative of the small proportion of villages ties of Indonesia, 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 Jakarta. 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 Riau 16.8 30.5 aims not only to demonstrate the degree of Jambi 6.2 8.0 variation in Minangkabau migration, but also to South Sumatra 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.