Gendered Migration and Agroforestry in Indonesia: Livelihoods, Labor, Know-How, Networks

Betha Lusiana,Meine Van Noordwijk,Elok Mulyoutami

doi:10.3390/land9120529

Betha Lusiana, Meine Van Noordwijk + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land9120529

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Journal: Land	Publication Date: Dec 18, 2020
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Wageningen University & Research

Abstract

Migration connects land use in areas of origin with areas of new residence, impacting both through individual, gendered choices on the use of land, labor, and knowledge. Synthesizing across two case studies in Indonesia, we focus on five aspects: (i) conditions within the community of origin linked to the reason for people to venture elsewhere, temporarily or permanently; (ii) the changes in the receiving community and its environment, generally in rural areas with lower human population density; (iii) the effect of migration on land use and livelihoods in the areas of origin; (iv) the dynamics of migrants returning with different levels of success; and (v) interactions of migrants in all four aspects with government and other stakeholders of development policies. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions in the study areas showed how decisions vary with gender and age, between individuals, households, and groups of households joining after signs of success. Most of the decision making is linked to perceived poverty, natural resource and land competition, and emergencies, such as natural disasters or increased human conflicts. People returning successfully may help to rebuild the village and its agricultural and agroforestry systems and can invest in social capital (mosques, healthcare, schools).

Highlights

Contrary to the long-term attachment to place that prevails in “myths of origin” and cultural constructs of place-based identity [1,2], humans have a history of dispersal and migration [3], as reflected in our complex DNA and linguistic signatures [4]
In the case study of West Java to Lampung, we interviewed in West Java alone
Some land “ownership” does not have a strong legal basis supported by a letter or certificate from the National Land Agency. These various observations can be interpreted as pieces of a larger puzzle in which migration decisions become linked at human life-cycle scales, as shown in Figure 1, based on the five questions raised in the introduction

Summary

Introduction

Contrary to the long-term attachment to place that prevails in “myths of origin” and cultural constructs of place-based identity [1,2], humans have a history of dispersal and migration [3], as reflected in our complex DNA and linguistic signatures [4]. Migration has been the demographic basis of the expansion of our species spreading to all parts of the world, adapting to a wide range of circumstances and learning how to cope with variability and diversity. Both cultural and genetic evidence suggests that human dispersal and migration were not a one-way process and that links to areas of origin were maintained through any means of communication and transport that was accessible in given periods of human history and development. The sex ratio of recent migration has been 110.3 (males per 100 females)

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Conclusion