Postponing Labor in Fisheries, Tourism and Agriculture Sectors: Rural Eastern Indonesian University Students in Java

Abstract

This paper explores the migration of Eastern Indonesian university students who come to Java for education. Often from rural, economically disadvantaged regions such as the Kei Islands in Southeast Maluku, and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), these young adults delay joining fisheries, agriculture, or tourism sectors. Instead, these relatively high-performing students travel to the “center of the country” seeking skills and experiences promised by higher education in Javanese urban centers. This qualitative, anthropological research complements other, more technical and economic approaches. Based on interview and observational data, a complicated portrait emerges of these bright young people from fishing and farming communities in Maluku and NTT. Many idealistically plan to return to their home communities, hoping to improve local fishing and farming methods or to work as teachers, civil servants, or tour guides. Others do not intend to return home, where they think jobs are scarce and traditional livelihoods unattractive. Analysis of this generation’s perspective has critical implications for educators and policymakers wishing to prevent a “brain drain” of their educated native sons and daughters, whose experience and skills could contribute importantly to the various socio-economic demands present in island regions, including fisheries and agriculture, conservation, tourism, and employment.