Proceedings of The 6th International Academic Conference on Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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A Comparative Study of International Skilled Workers Migration: Challenges and Opportunities for Indonesia
Ansgarius W. Mau
ABSTRACT:
Indonesia is one of the biggest migrant-exporting countries globally, especially in the unskilled job sector, where most workers are sent to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The country has also begun to diversify into the skilled job sector, particularly in the nurse labour market, with Germany in 2021. This report attempts to examine the challenges and opportunities for Indonesia to expand to other countries besides Germany, such as the UK, the U.S., Canada and Australia, especially for the nurse workforce. Drawing on Richard Rose’s work (2004), this paper synthesises and compares several elements of policies from the Philippines and China to create a different model Indonesia may use to improve its migrant policies. The elements of policies, in this case, are laws and regulations, responsible organisations, personnel, source of funding, the programme’s outputs, recipients, and goals. The most prevalent challenge identified is remittance spent mainly on consumptive items, while the temporary surplus of nurses is considered an ideal opportunity. The synthesis based on Rose’s model suggests two approaches Indonesia could adopt. First, learning from the Philippines’ struggle with remittance for consumptive meanings, Indonesia may consider establishing a regulation governing the proportion of remittance used for consumptive and productive purposes, with a bigger percentage allocated for the latter. Second, providing optional opportunities for nurses who have finished their studies to work overseas through the Indonesian Education Scholarship (BPI). China successfully implemented a similar scheme in the past and gained a strong global network through its alums.
keywords: BPI, Rose’s model, skilled workers, migrant, nurse