Does internal parental migration affect child school participation and work in Indonesia?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Population by migration status and gender, 2015–2021 (in thousands). Source: Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS, 2016, 2020b, 2022).

Figure 2. School participation by children of different age groups (in years), 2016–2019. Source: BPS (2024).

Figure 3. Distribution of child labour by work field (%) 2019–2021. Source: BPS (2019, 2020a, 2021).

Figure 4. Activities of children aged 10–15 years in Indonesia based on the migratory status of the parents. Source: BPS (2016).

Table 1. Definition of variables.

No	Variable	Definition	Type	Measurement
Dependent variable
1	Participation of children in school and work	Activities carried out during the past week by children aged 10–15 years	Discrete	Nominal, where: 1 = attend school, 2 = working, 3 = school and work, 4 = not in school and work (idle)
Independent variable: individual characteristics of the child
2	Age of child	Age on last birthday	Continuous	Years
3	Child sex	Sex of children aged 10–15 years which consists of male and female	Discrete	0 = female, 1 = male
Independent variable: parent’s characteristics
4	Father’s migration status	People who move provinces and then settle somewhere	Discrete	0 = non-internal migrants 1 = internal migrant parents (province)
5	Father migration duration	Length of stay at migration destination	Continuous	Nominal, where: 0 = no migration 1 = < 5 years 2 = 5–9 years 3 = > 9 years
6	Father’s age	Age	Continuous	Years
7	Father’s education	Diploma/Certificate of Highest Completion of Study (STTB)	Continuous	Nominal, where: 1 = does not have an elementary school diploma; 6 = elementary/MI/equivalent; 9 = junior school/equivalent; 12 = senior school/equivalent; 13 = higher education (diploma and bachelor)
8	Father has a steady job	The type of a person’s position in work and the field of activity of the job/business/company/office where the person works, or produced by the company/office where the respondent works.	Discrete	0 = other 1 = if father has a permanent job
9	Father works in the agricultural sector		Discrete	0 = other 1 = if father works in the non-agricultural sector
10	Father works in the trade sector		Discrete	0 = other 1 = if father works in the trade sector
11	Father works in the service sector		Discrete	0 = other 1 = if father works in the service sector
12	Mother’s migration status	People who move provinces and then settle in one place	Discrete	0 = internal non-migrants 1 = internal migrant parents (province)
13	Mother migration duration	Length of stay at the migration destination	Continuous	Nominal, where: 0 = no migration 1 = < 5 years 2 = 5–9 years 3 = > 9 years
14	Mother’s age	Age	Continuous	Years
15	Mother’s education	Diploma/Certificate of Highest Educational Level	Continuous	Nominal, where: 1 = does not have an elementary school diploma; 6 = Elementary/MI/equivalent; 9 = SMP/MTs/equivalent; 12 = SMA/MA/equivalent; 13 = higher education (diploma and bachelor)
16	Mother Job: Housewife	The type of a person’s position in work and the field of activity of the job/business/company/office where the person works, or produced by the company/office where the respondent works.	Discrete	0 = other 1 = if the mother takes care of the household
17	Mother has a steady job		Discrete	0 = other 1 = if the mother’s employment status is permanent job
Independent variable: socio-economic status of households
18	Living in the Village	Introduction of village or sub-district places to indicate rural or urban areas	Discrete	0 = urban 1 = rural
19	Number of children	Number of children in the household	Continuous
20	Living Condition: Dirt floor	The predominant type of floor in the house	Discrete	0 = non-timber/land 1 = wood/papa/land
21	Living Condition: There is electricity	Energy sources used by households	Discrete	0 = non-electric 1 = electric
22	Regional GDP	GRDP log of province of residence	Continuous	Rupiah

Table 2. Summary statistics.

Variables	Mean	Std. dev	Min	Max
Migration status and parental characteristics
Father’s migratory status	0.180	0.384	0	1
Father migration duration	0.494	1.082	0	3
Father’s age	44.574	7.469	16	95
Father’s education	7.990	4.427	1	19
Father has a steady job	0.306	0.461	0	1
Father works in the agricultural sector	0.467	0.499	0	1
Father works in the trade sector	0.154	0.361	0	1
Father works in the service sector	0.152	0.359	0	1
Mother’s migration status	0.157	0.364	0	1
Mother migration duration	0.430	1.021	0	3
Mother’s age	40.130	6.658	16	79
Mother’s education	7.581	4.235	1	19
Mother job: housewife	0.638	0.481	0	1
Mother has a steady job	0.115	0.319	0	1
Individual characteristics of children
Child age	12.485	1.713	10	15
Boy	0.515	0.500	0	1
Household characteristics
Live in the village	0.817	0.387	0	1
Number of children	2.917	1.389	1	15
Living condition: dirt floor	0.249	0.433	0	1
Living condition: availability of electricity	0.932	0.252	0	1
Regional GDP	12.410	1.204	9.922	14.190

Table 3. Marginal effect of multinomial logit regression results.

	School		Work		School and Work		Idle
	dy/dx	P>|z|	dy/dx	P>|z|	dy/dx	P>|z|	dy/dx	P>|z|
Migration status and parental characteristics
Father’s migratory status	−0.011	0.198	0.000	0.818	0.013	0.014**	−0.002	0.720
Father’s migration duration	0.004	0.138	0.000	0.820	−0.005	0.001***	0.001	0.824
Father’s age	0.000	0.000***	0.000	0.787	0.000	0.000***	0.000	0.531
Father’s education	0.003	0.000***	0.000	0.000***	0.000	0.013**	−0.002	0.000***
Father has a steady job	0.003	0.038**	0.000	0.076*	−0.006	0.000***	0.002	0.042**
Father works in the agricultural sector	−0.010	0.000***	0.000	0.015**	0.011	0.000***	−0.002	0.190
Father works in the trade sector	−0.002	0.249	−0.001	0.005***	0.005	0.000***	−0.002	0.215
Father works in the service sector	0.000	0.875	−0.001	0.000***	0.003	0.018**	−0.002	0.265
Mother’s migratory status	−0.036	0.001***	0.003	0.071*	0.006	0.248	0.026	0.007***
Mother’s migration duration	0.010	0.001***	−0.001	0.038**	−0.001	0.660	−0.008	0.001***
Mother’s age	0.000	0.716	0.000	0.002***	0.000	0.002***	0.000	0.397
Mother’s education	0.004	0.000***	0.000	0.000***	−0.001	0.000***	−0.003	0.000***
Mother’s job: housewife	0.023	0.000***	−0.001	0.000***	−0.027	0.000***	0.005	0.000***
Mother has a steady job	0.007	0.001***	0.000	0.364	−0.014	0.000***	0.006	0.001***
Individual characteristics of children
Child age	−0.017	0.000***	0.002	0.000***	0.005	0.000***	0.009	0.000***
Boy	−0.015	0.000***	0.003	0.000***	0.007	0.000***	0.005	0.000***
Household characteristics
Live in the village	−0.007	0.000***	0.000	0.968	0.011	0.000***	−0.005	0.001***
Number of children	−0.004	0.000***	0.000	0.000***	0.003	0.000***	0.001	0.001***
Living condition: dirt floor	−0.019	0.000***	0.001	0.000***	0.006	0.000***	0.012	0.000***
Living condition: availability of electricity	0.054	0.000***	−0.002	0.000***	−0.025	0.000***	−0.026	0.000***
Regional GDP	−0.003	0.000***	0.000	0.380	−0.001	0.013**	0.003	0.000***

*** p < .01, **p < .05, *p < .1.

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