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| Transmigration |
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Overview
Indonesia's transmigration program (Transmigrasi), the world's largest resettlement project, was based on an earlier Dutch colonial policy that was reinstated during the Suharto regime. The program's goals were to alleviate population pressure on the islands of Java, Madura, and Bali while improving living standards and employment opportunities for the poor throughout the country. For example, although Indonesia consists of more than 6,000 inhabited islands, nearly 60% of the population lives on the island of Java. The lesser populated islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua were the target locations for migration. Subsidiary aims included boosting regional development and agricultural production as well as strengthening national unity. Since the voluntary resettlement program began in 1950, over 1.5 million families, mostly families of poor farmers, have participated. The World Bank helped finance the Transmigration Program with over half a billion dollars. The seven Bank-supported transmigration projects included five projects in the uplands of Sumatra and East Kalimantan, and two swamp reclamation projects in coastal Sumatra. Transmigration to Sumatra, the initial destination of the program, was ended in 1992 when settlement goals were achieved.
The past several years have seen a significant cutback in annual transmigration volume. Contributing factors to this change include substantial financial constraints as a result of the economic crisis, tight control of government spending through the IMF's structural adjustment program and the increased influence of the IMF-led creditor group over domestic budget decisions. Further, the implementation of decentralization/regional autonomy legislation, and the new phenomena of political and environmental refugees have had an impact. The World Bank has reassessed its views on transmigration and no longer supports similar projects. The result is an end to the pattern of government-sponsored, centralized, large-scale transmigration. The focus of the new transmigration policy is to support population mobility by shifting cheap labor and internally displaced people through the local transmigration scheme (trans-lok).
In December 2001, Indonesia's minister of manpower and transmigration, Jacob Nuwa Wea, announced that the government's transmigration program would be reformed, to prevent it from becoming a source of conflict between local people and settlers. Under the revised program, the legal status of land will be checked before being given to transmigrants. The minister admitted that the existing policy failed to assess the social, cultural and environmental background of the target regions and people living there. The program will focus on job creation, not just the mass movement of people. The minister also stated that there would be a 50:50 ratio between local people and transmigrants.
Critics say that the emphasis on legal status of land will not improve matters for indigenous communities affected by transmigration unless the legal definition of land ownership is expanded to include adat (customary) land held by indigenous communities.
Impacts
Between 1969 and 1995, more than eight million people were relocated to less populated islands including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and West Papua (previously known as Irian Jaya). The sponsored migrants were provided with housing, land, access to education, and health care. They were required to be married, to be of good character, and to have farming experience. Most applicants for the program were landless, young rural families.
Critics of the program argue that the relocations were not always voluntary, and forced many poor people in Java to move against their will. The program has had a range of economic, agricultural, environmental, ethnic and religious impacts.
The Indonesian government argues that the Transmigration Program spread the benefits of Indonesia's economic growth and therefore achieved its primary goals. However, an increasing number of violent clashes between migrants and indigenous populations throughout the country are evidence that the program also generated considerable backlash.
For more information, please see Migration Fuels Indonesia's Fires, Fear http://forests.org/archive/indomalay/migfuels.htm
Economic Impacts
While the government predicted that the previous transmigration program would boost production and agricultural development, farming extensification was marginal. Although certain settlements in Sulawesi were agriculturally successful, they were the exception. In other cases, the government made efforts to compensate migrants, but several factors hindered their progress. The land supplied was either a part of the alang alang plains, a hard, high grass area; or it had poor soil damaged by forest fires. In addition, unqualified labor and a shortage of workers reduced annual crop yields. Soil degradation, erosion, and weak supporting services also contributed to the program's failure. While rubber production proved economically viable for some farmers, most migrant families continued to survive at subsistence levels. Non-farm employment opportunities were limited almost exclusively to trading and crafts. There were also numerous cases where transmigrants returned back to their villages due to harsh conditions in remote settlement locations.
Environmental Impacts
Although the primary source of deforestation is commercial, the pressure placed by transmigration programs worsened the situation. Logging operations and land clearing for industrial timber, palm oil and coconut plantations caused the loss of significant tracts of rainforest. The Indonesian government has adequate rules concerning the environment and forests, but no effective capacity to enforce them. The World Bank noted in 1994 that land-clearing projects contained no measures to prevent erosion. Moreover, no efforts were made to introduce local forest products to the migrants, and commercial timber was left partly burned in the fields.
For more information please see the brief on the Environment.
Impact on Indigenous Peoples
Perhaps the program's most serious impact has been on the indigenous people living on the islands where the migrants settled. An investigation in the early 1990's by the UNDP and World Bank showed how Indonesian forestry and land laws denied indigenous peoples rights and thus facilitated the take-over of their lands by other interests. Later studies carried out for the World Bank showed that this process of dispossessing indigenous peoples was applied systematically throughout the archipelago. The government stated that the settlement areas excluded regions with large numbers of indigenous people, but the increase in ethnic and religious conflicts between settlers and indigenous groups is evidence to the contrary.
Violent confrontations have occurred in Kalimantan, Aceh, Sulawesi, and Papua in recent years. Among indigenous people, the transmigration policy is considered a new type of invasion by the Javanese and Madurese, who also brought Islam to traditionally Christian or non-Muslim areas. In Kalimantan, clashes between the migrants, many from Madura, and the indigenous Dayaks have intensified in recent years, mainly due to land disputes. A large number of people have also been fleeing Aceh, including native Acehnese and Javanese transmigrants. The native Acehnese fled military violence, whereas the transmigrants had to leave to escape from threats and abuses by Acehnese.
Native hunting tribes such as the Kubu Rimba in Sumatra have lost a significant part of their land after settlers from Java and Bali cut down the forests to create oil palm plantations. The Kubu have lived in the forests of southern Sumatra since prehistoric times as hunter-gatherers and nomadic farmers. Because they are not settled, they do not qualify for land under Indonesian law and their land was considered appropriate for resettlement under the transmigration program.
Voluntary Migration
Not all transmigration has been forced - in fact, of the estimated 45 million living on Indonesia's outer islands, 5 million are Javanese, only 1.3 of which were part of the transmigration program. Throughout Indonesia, the movement of migrants due to political instability and the economic crisis has altered demographic conditions, leading to increased tensions between the migrants and the existing local populations.
Agricultural Expansion and Pioneer Settlements in the Humid Tropics
Challenges
Experts urge a number of steps to alleviate the long-term negative effects of the program. These measures should improve the livelihood of the settlers, and provide more effective protection for indigenous peoples whose lives have been disrupted by the program. Specific issues that have been raised include a clearly defined settlement plan for migrants; investigation of soil quality prior to relocating farmers; a policy to ensure an economic and social livelihood for the indigenous population; and a plan for sustainable agriculture. For example, replanting trees will help avoid erosion, preserve the local wildlife, and minimize the long-term consequences of logging. All policies need to be enforced regularly, and the enforcement mechanism itself must be held accountable.
Resources
Indonesia Transmigration Program: a Review of Five Bank-Supported Projects
"Transmigration Issues & Perspectives" from the Ministry of Transmigration, Indonesia
Indonesia's Transmigration Progam: An Update
Updated April 2002
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