New development, old migration, and governance at two villages in Jeneponto, Indonesia

Abstract

The governance factor is rarely considered as an issue that contributes significantly to the development and migration in rural areas. This article aims to examine the relations between governance, migration, and development in rural areas in Indonesia. The primary analysis to understand why and how the patterns of old migration persist after new development in rural areas has increased. Our study finds that old migration continued due to the livelihoods, community-based economic empowerment, human resources, and rural environment problems, which did not change after the emergence of new development in the villages. We described that the lack of village governance response to the new development sustains the old migration. Through the case of two villages, we drew an argument that the weakness of rural development in suppressing the migration flow, was mainly due to the lack of governance. Therefore, local rural capacity is the primary policy option is urgently required to solve governance problems in the development and migration of rural areas.