Departing from Java: Javanese labour, migration and diaspora

• Main Author: CHANG, Andy Scott
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Demography, Population, and Ecology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3474; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4731/viewcontent/BkRev_DepartingJava_2020_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Under globalization, guest worker programs are increasingly touted as a “win-win” solution for regularizing cross-border mobility. While such temporary migration schemes enable destination states to procure a flexible labour pool, they are said to benefit origin states through skill and remittance transfers. The Indonesian state, nonetheless, is often perceived as bereft of the capacity to harness labour export for development. Departing from Java complicates this narrative of administrative failure by analyzing diaspora through the prisms of empire, state-building, and feminism. Placing migration in contexts that are local and global, imperial and postcolonial, and authoritarian and democratic, the edited volume examines diasporic formations from Java—Indonesia’s and the world’s most populous island—that span epochs, generations, and localities. As such, Departing from Java provides a comprehensive account of Javanese migration in its colonial and contemporary configurations.