Abstract

The panacea proposed for Jakarta’s environmental deterioration involves relocating the capital to a new city to be built in East Kalimantan. Despite garnering parliamentary support, a survey revealed great reluctance of citizens to move to the new capital. This resistance of urban migration is growing globally. To facilitate policymakers in constructing an urban environment conducive to improving migrant well-being, this paper focuses on understanding the impact of urban migration decisions on household well-being outcomes by studying Indonesian Family Life Survey data. The analysis extends existing literature by stratifying between rural-originating and urban-originating households and employing triple-difference estimation to evaluate the impact on objective and subjective well-being. Adopting the triple-difference method exposes the negative impact of urban migration on well-being, which the commonly adopted difference-in-difference estimation underestimates. This is argued to be due to unmet rising expectations of migrants resulting from labour market stickiness, futile attempts at enterprise, high urban living costs, and social repercussions.

Evidence for practice

• This paper calls to attention the vast disparity between areas within Indonesia such that households decide to migrate in the first place. Although the country has been making substantial improvements in both urban services and infrastructure in numerous towns, it is unclear whether these facilities are providing the level of quality migrants are expecting.
• The findings of this study expose the urgency of investigating Indonesia’s assistance in the processes of urban migration. By streamlining the process and communicating it more effectively, households will have a much better understanding of the costs and rewards of migration. Additionally, effective social safety nets, consisting of both public assistance and market insurance, would reduce dependence on social networks. 
• However, the best means to help migrants is to ease their integration. Offering housing assistance in the form of rent subsidies, pre-migration matching to a job, help with childcare arrangements, and schemes generating a general feeling of welcomeness would enable the migrant to quickly feel more at home in their new community. 

 
Keywords: Urban migration, well-being, difference-in-difference, triple-difference

Citation: Putri, G. (2023). Pain of migration. Insights into the impact of urban migration on the broad well-being outcomes of the households. Public Note, 10(2), 32-38.

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About the author

"My name is Gabriela Putri and I have just graduated with an undergraduate degree in Economics and Business Economics from Utrecht University. As an Indonesian who grew up abroad, I found that people such as my classmates would often have the wrong impressions about my country. This experience propelled me to conduct research on social interventions, thus preparing me to seek out solutions for my country in my future career. The most pressing issue that Indonesia is currently facing has been its capital relocation plan as a large majority of Jakartans refuse moving to the new capital. This growing resistance of urban migration can be seen growing globally in both developing and developed countries as well, despite the promise of higher wages in these respective urban areas. As such, it is crucial to assess the impact of urban migration on households, to uncover whether or not its benefits have been grossly overestimated."