\'Mudik\' and Social Exclusion

KOMPAS/DIDIE SW

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Mudik (exodus) is actually is not just a flow of migrants returning to their hometowns to reunite with relatives and acquaintances in the villages. Beyond the increasing number of travelers conducting the mudik trips this year, there are complex socioeconomic issues, reflecting the problematic situation that occurs behind the sparkle among people celebrating Lebaran.

In 2018 it is estimated that there will be a rise in the mudik flow by 10 to 15 percent compared to mudik in 2017. The number of travelers using land transportation is estimated to reach 8.09 million people, trains at 4.63 million people, air transportation at 5.75 million people and sea transportation 1.77 million. Meanwhile, the number of motorcycle users is estimated at 6.39 million people, up from 4.78 million in 2017.

Compared to the number of travelers who use other modes of transportation, travelers who use motorcycles occupy the first and largest category. The large surge in the number of travelers using motorcycles indicates that most travelers are villagers whose economic situations are lower than average.

They are not middle-class travelers who have private cars or enough money to go by plane or other vehicles. Choosing motorcycles as a means to take part in mudik, even though risky, is necessary to save on transportation costs, either from the cities to the villages or to fulfill transportation requirements during the mudik season in their areas of origin.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Thousands of travelers use KM Tidar, a ship owned by PT Pelni (Persero), which berths in Yos Soedarso Port, Ambon City, Maluku, on Sunday (20/7/2014). The ship departed for Banda, Central Maluku; Tual City, Dobo, Aru Islands regency; and a number of areas in Papua.

Social exclusion

On paper, the mudik flow will actually not continue to rise as much today if the villages in the country have advanced rapidly and are able to offer alternative employment opportunities for the people of the community. However, due to the choice of development policies that tend to be biased to urban communities, what happens ultimately is that the mudik flow grows so massively in various regions. As George Martine et al (2008) point out in the book The New Global Frontier, Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21^st Century, a developmental approach that puts big cities in the center of progress inevitably causes rising polarization and villages to be increasingly underdeveloped, so that the flow of urbanization is increasingly unstoppable in storming the big cities.

When the agricultural sector and small industries in villages are no longer promising, and farmers bear losses due to weather anomalies and uneven distribution of profit margins, do not be surprised if the villages increasingly lose their attractiveness. Conversely, the big cities then become a foundation of hope to make a living. However, in contrast to the pattern of mudik five to 10 years ago, in which the flow of travelers was only from big cities to villages in their native areas, now the flow of mudik tends to be more fragmented. Municipalities where migrant workers try to make a living are no longer big cities like Jakarta or Surabaya, but have shifted to middle cities such as Bekasi, Karawang, Tangerang, Sidoarjo, Gresik, Mojokerto and other secondary cities that have grown into new industrial areas.

Big cities in the eyes of the villagers tend to be judged in an increasingly unfriendly manner. The "closed door" policy for poor migrant residents, and the greater employment opportunities in big cities in the company\'s economic sector often prevent less educated villagers from being absorbed because they cannot meet requirements set by the industry.

In various big cities, the pattern that generally occurs is social exclusion, limiting poor migrant opportunities. It is a process where the society (newcomers) is hindered in attaining positions, as well as resources, to live a life where they can play an active role fully. The excluded people are those who are sidelined from the network of workers with fixed incomes and also from the wealth network.

KOMPAS/IQBAL BASYARI

Travelers and their vehicles line up at Merak Port, Cilegon, Banten, on Wednesday (13/6/2018) at about 12:15 a.m.

This social exclusion is not just about the limited material resources, but also about the rights of citizenship and politics. The social exclusion can also be about the absence of gender equations in various domains. Furthermore, social exclusion also includes restrictions on the involvement of local community members in various activities: they tend to be vulnerable to eviction, discrimination and so on.

In many big cities, poor migrants are generally more absorbed in the informal economy sector, nonlegal informal sector, frequently even the illegal ones. Even if they are lucky to be absorbed into the company\'s economic sectors, usually the occupation they get is not a skilled one, such as security guard, cleaning service, or other unpromising jobs. Migrant opportunities for employment and access to social facilities in cities are generally limited due to administrative reasons and because of the impact of discriminatory policies.

To avoid the pressures of the necessities of living in more expensive big cities that are not commensurate with their wages, the pattern that has arisen in the last five years is that migrants now prefer to seek work in secondary cities rather than big cities. The low cost of living and the welcoming work environment is an appealing combination of factors for migrant workers to work in smaller cities and towns. Even though the income earned is generally not as much as working in big cities, for the migrant workers it is profitable because it is still greater than the chances of them finding work in larger cities.

Reorganizing the villages

To prevent regional disparities from increasing and to reduce urbanization, the President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo-Vice President Jusuf Kalla administration has paid special attention to villages, both through village funding programs and other programs that provide opportunities for rural enterprises to grow further.

YOLA SASTRA FOR KOMPAS

Travelers joining the free mudik (exodus) trip wait to enter KM Dobonsolo passenger ship at Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, on Wednesday (13/6/2018).

During the last three years, various villages in the country have been flushed with funds that are not small, with the hope that the village\'s old-fashioned ways will be reduced. The development of agropolitan and minipolitan areas targeting the agrarian and coastal villages is another program developed by the government to encourage the development of villagers\' economic activities. Injections of business capital loans, production equipment aid, seed or seedling assistance and others are efforts that are simultaneously being developed to increase the acceleration of rural community empowerment.

Has the result developed as expected? Asking villages that have for so long been left behind by the development of the urban bias to overcome tradition is certainly not easy. Over a period of three years, undoubtedly it is still far from sufficient to encourage the villages to overcome their traditional ways. However, at least the foundation toward it have started to realize more developed villages.

For the transition stage, preventing urbanization flows from concentrating on big cities has indeed been done through village development programs and shifting industrialization in secondary cities. However, more than just focusing on the development from big cities to villages and secondary cities, what is equally important is to change the development that is truly pro-village and pro-poor people.

Raising the amount of funds to various villages through the village funding program is a starting point to encourage the acceleration of business development in rural areas. However, beyond that, what needs to be developed are development programs based on the management of assets and programs that truly empower the rural poor people.

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

Bagong Suyanto

Experiences have taught that the risk from disappearance of community assets due to invasions of capital owners from the city is undoubtedly the emergence of unstoppable urbanization. Reorganizing rural communities to be more empowered and how to develop strong social cohesion against capital invasion from the city is not possible only through the provision of funds. Because what is no less important is how to build a bargaining position and put the rights of rural communities to get a more proportionate share of what they produce.

Bagong Suyanto, Professor of the Sociology Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science (FISIP), Airlangga University