No Space at Home: Gender Ideology and Livelihood in Environmental Forced Migration

Abstract

The lives of women who have decided to become Indonesian migrant workers in several Asia Pacific areas, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, provide fascinating research opportunities. This research took as a case study several women from East Java Province who chose to become Indonesian migrant workers due to the loss of agricultural land or plantation fields as their main livelihood. The research analyzed the phenomenon of the migration of women as a result of the environmental crisis, which is a crisis specific to rural areas, as well as the gender ideology that accompanies the phenomenon of feminized labor in Indonesia. This research was conducted with a qualitative paradigm using the snowball technique for recruitment. The research location was in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. The results of the research revealed that in the agricultural sector, which is a source of livelihood, land productivity continues to diminish due to famines, climate change, and land conditions that are not strategic and are progressively narrowed due to industrialization. Instead, land as an agricultural asset can be turned into cost capital for villagers, specifically women, to discover better jobs by migrating as Indonesian migrant workers. In carrying out international migration, the women attempted to alter the gender ideology, transform various negative stereotypes and become empowered and independent female workers.
 Keywords: environmental, forced migration, gender ideology, livelihood