False papers and family fictions: household responses to ‘gift children’ born to Indonesian women during transnational migration

Abstract

When parents pursue transnational labour migration, challenges arise around ensuring the social belonging of children, especially ‘gift children’ who are conceived or born abroad as a result of out-of-wedlock relationships or sexual assault. Families we interviewed in Lombok, Indonesia, displayed complex social ingenuity to ensure the gift child’s social belonging. Caregivers described how they address discrimination by manipulating and falsifying family histories in identity documents, including census forms and birth registration. These family strategies drive home the local role of identity documents as a tool to enhance belonging rather than as proof of legal identity. We spotlight the time lag between birth and obtaining an official birth record as a crucial space in creating ‘citizenship from below’ in communities with high out-migration and low birth registration rates.

Keywords:

• Illegitimate children
• transnational migration
• family
• birth registration
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

Human research ethics review was provided by the University of Victoria, Canada. Permission for the research was granted by Badan Lingkungan Hidup dan Penelitian, Nusa Tenggara Barat Province, Indonesia. The investigators were sponsored by the Education and Cultural Centre (Pusat Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan) and the Women’s Studies Centre (Pusat Studi Wanita) at the University of Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia. For assistance with the study, the authors thank Dr. Untung Waluyo of the University of Mataram, Mr. Roma Hidayat and Mr. Habibie of Advocates for Indonesian Migrants.

Notes

1. These numbers are lower than current estimates of 20%. Rates are higher in urban centres (Sadiq 2009; AIPJ 2014).

2. Constable (2014) suggests birth statements issued overseas are not accepted at civil registries in Indonesia.

3. In-depth interviews with adult triad participants were conducted alone. Carrying out interviews in accordance with the requirements of our university’s ethics review board created challenges, which are discussed in full in Ball and Beazley (n.d.).

4. All names are pseudonyms.

5. This advocate drew on personal religious values to support families with gift children. She was not affiliated with an organisation.