Step-wise migration: evidence from Indonesia

Elda L. Pardede, University of Groningen
Philip McCann, University of Groningen
Viktor Venhorst, University of Groningen

The objective of this paper is to study multiple internal migration trajectories in Indonesia, with special attention to step-wise migration. Step-wise migration involves moves with smaller steps from village to nearby small town, to larger town, and then to big cities rather than a direct move from village to urban centres. The availability of migration histories in Indonesia Family Life Surveys 1993, 1997, 2000, 2007 provides an excellent opportunity for examining these various under-researched issues, which importance would appear to be central to the processes driving economic development in Less Developed Countries. By employing sequence analysis method, it is expected that step-wise migration is evident, but not a predominant feature of internal migration trajectories in Indonesia. On the basis of the results of emerging internal migration trajectories from sequence analysis, multinomial regression model would be constructed to assess the relationships between step-wise migration and other type of migrations to individual, household, and geographical characteristics.