Does post-migration education improve labour market performance? Findings from four cities in Indonesia
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 11 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine which factors are important in determining the post-migration education among rural-urban migrants in Indonesia. Second, to investigate whether investing in post-migration education in the cities improves the labour market performances of rural-urban migrants. The labour market performances are measured by the occupational (work) statuses and earnings (wages) at destination.
Design/methodology/approach
The determinants of post-migration education are estimated using a binary probit and ordinary least square, while a multinomial logit model and a two-step procedure of Lee’s selection-biased correction based on the multinomial logit are used to examine the effects of post-migration education on the labour market performances of migrants measured by occupational status and by wages. The main source of the data used in this study is the Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI) 2009-2011 survey conducted in the four largest recent migrant destination cities in Indonesia including Tangerang, Medan, Samarinda, and Makassar.
Findings
Post-migration education contributes significantly to the labour market performance in terms of work status and wages, compared to pre-migration education. In terms of work status, migrants with more post-migration education are more likely to be employed in the formal sector compared to migrants with less or no post-migration education. Relating to earnings, migrants with more post-migration education also tend to be paid more than those migrants with less or no post-migration education.
Originality/value
The role of post-migration education in the case of rural-urban migration particularly in developing countries is a relatively neglected area of research. One possible reason is because of the lack of data for rural-urban migration particularly in the case of developing countries. This study is taking advantage by using a new data set from RUMiCI focusing specifically on the rural-urban migrants in the four largest recent migrant destination cities in Indonesia including Tangerang, Medan, Samarinda, and Makassar.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research received The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO)-Jasper Research Award in Bangkok, 2013.
Citation
Pratomo, D.S. (2017), "Does post-migration education improve labour market performance? Findings from four cities in Indonesia", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 44 No. 9, pp. 1139-1153. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-10-2015-0279
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited