Migrant Mothers and the Sedentary Child Bias: Constraints on Child Circulation in Indonesia

Abstract

Across the Asia-Pacific region, increasing numbers of women are migrating transnationally for low-skill work while their children remain in home communities, fostered by family or neighbours. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2014–15 in Lombok, Indonesia, this paper describes a sedentary child bias within Indonesian policies, and how this bias constrains migrant mothers’ choices regarding the care and well-being of their children. Vignettes describing the challenges of caregivers in Lombok families illustrate how the absence of social services, local forms of child fostering and limits on transnational adoption and child mobility together significantly curtail migrant mothers’ opportunities to arrange optimal support for their children while working abroad. The sedentary child bias in Indonesia raises issues around limits on the circulation of children that are relevant to the wider Asia and Pacific region, where temporary female labour migration and concomitant mother–child separation is on the rise.

Keywords:

• Mother–Child Separation
• Feminisation of Migration
• Fostering
• Adoption Policies
• Child Welfare
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

The authors were sponsored by the University of Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia. The authors thank Dr Untung Waluyo of the University of Mataram, and staff and outreach workers at the NGO ADBMI in East Lombok for their research assistance.

Notes

1 Australia set up the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme in 2008 and New Zealand set up the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme in 2007.

2 All names are pseudonyms.

3 Non-profit organisations do offer support for migrant families. However, most funding from international agencies and NGOs prioritises helping families ensure a successful migration experience rather than focusing on the needs of stay-behind children.

4 Fostering is also linked to Islam. The religion forbids formal, permanent adoption from one family to another (Beatty 2002).

5 The national legislations governing adoption were passed in 1917, 1989, 1993 and 1994 (UN 2009).

6 Other countries with very low rates of international adoption are not necessarily countries with successful economies or autonomous political regimes. These countries include: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Tanzania and Niger (UN 2009).

7 There was significant concern amongst orphanage staff that a black market thrives within Indonesia for children born out of wedlock due to the combination of intractable policy and personal shame around not having proof of parentage for the child.

Additional information

Funding

Research discussed in this article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Development [grant number 430-2013-001079].