Migration under crisis; household safety nets in Indonesia's economic collapse

Abstract

Based on research carried out in South Sulawesi, this article examines the influences of Indonesia's economic crisis on low-income women's spatial mobility, and the consequences of these women's increased rural-return migration on household “safety nets”. Specifically, the investigation focuses on changes in migration patterns and household compositions since the beginning of the crisis, and the ways these changes are re-shaping the operation of rural safety nets for particular household members. Findings indicate that within the researched group of low-income households in South Sulawesi containing female rural-return migrants from an export processing zone, the working-age women who have returned to their origin site households face disproportionately heavy labor burdens. In addition, changes in household compositions and divisions of labour and resources since mid-1997 have tended to privilege men and the elderly. More broadly, these findings suggest that the local impacts of the economic crisis are best understood as culturally negotiated and gender differentiated processes that are taking shape in linked rural–urban socio-spatial networks.