In Sickness and in Wealth

Carol Chan

Description

Villagers in Indonesia hear a steady stream of stories about the injuries, abuses, and even deaths suffered by those who migrate in search of work. So why do hundreds of thousands of Indonesian workers continue to migrate every year? Carol Chan explores this question from the perspective of the origin community and provides a fascinating look at how gender, faith, and shame shape these decisions to migrate. Villagers evaluate men's and women's migrations differently, leading to different ideas about which kinds of human or financial flows should be encouraged and which should be discouraged or even criminalized. Despite routine and well-documented instances of exploitation of Indonesian migrant workers, some villagers still emphasize that a migrant's success or failure ultimately depends on that individual's morality, fate, and destiny. Indonesian villagers construct strategies for avoiding migration-related risks that are closely linked to faith and belief in supernatural agency. These strategies shape the flow of migration from the country and help to ensure the continued confidence Indonesian people have in migration as an act of promise and hope.

Acknowledgements

Note on Names and Indonesian Currency

List of Abbreviations and Terms

Introduction: Faith in Migration

1. The Politics of Morality and Identity in Central Java

2. Mobilizing and Moralizing Indonesian Labor

3. Evaluating Migrant Success and Failure

4. Shame

5. Faith

6. Contesting the Terms of Belonging

Conclusion: Gendered Moral Economies of Migration

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Sociology of Religion
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Musulmán
• General officer
• Muslim
• Indonesia
• Anthropology
• General
• Muslim ben al-Hajjaj
• Social
• Migration
• Culture
• Java
• Indonésie

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 10 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253037046
• Langue: English

Extrait

IN SICKNESS AND IN WEALTH
FRAMING THE GLOBAL BOOK SERIES
The Framing the Global project, an initiative of Indiana University Press and the Indiana University Center for the Study of Global Change, is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Hilary E. Kahn and Deborah Piston-Hatlen, Series Editors
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Alfred C. Aman Jr.
Eduardo Brondizio
Maria Bucur
Bruce L. Jaffee
Patrick O’Meara
Radhika Parameswaran
Richard R. Wilk
IN SICKNESS AND IN WEALTH
Migration, Gendered Morality, and Central Java
Carol Chan
Indiana University Press
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2018 Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chan, Carol, author.
Title: In sickness and in wealth : migration, gendered morality, and Central Java / Carol Chan.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2018. | Series: Framing the global book series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018019380 (print) | LCCN 2018021015 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253037053 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253037022 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253037060 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Foreign workers, Indonesian. | Foreign workers’ families—Indonesia—Jawa Tengah—Attitudes. | Indonesians—Employment—Foreign countries. | Women foreign workers—Indonesia.
Classification: LCC HD8708.5.A2 (ebook) | LCC HD8708.5.A2 C53 2018 (print) | DDC 331.5/440899922—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019380
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Names and Indonesian Currency
List of Abbreviations and Terms
Introduction: Faith in Migration
1 The Politics of Morality and Identity in Central Java
2 Mobilizing and Moralizing Indonesia
3 Evaluating Migrant Success and Failure
4 Shame
5 Faith
6 Contesting the Terms of Belonging: Views of/from Elsewhere
Conclusion: Gendered Moral Economies of Migration
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
T HIS WORK WOULD not have been possible without the patience and kindness of the residents of the three migrant-origin villages in Cilacap and Yogyakarta. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to hear and witness the hopes, regrets, and sources of shame and faith that you have so generously shared with me, and hope that I have done your stories, lives, and struggles justice. Elsewhere in Java, I owe special gratitude to Ratih Pratiwi Anwar, who provided me with much intellectual, personal, and practical support from the very beginning of this project. I thank her for our engaging discussions on migration and development, for her countless invitations and introductions to migrant-related forums, activities, institutions, and contacts, and above all, for her deep friendship, care, and company. As a friend and occasional research assistant, Yuna (Pratina Ikhtiyarini) introduced me to several migrant labor activists and networks in Indonesia. Her companionship and insights during our field trips were invaluable.
The following organizations in Indonesia and Singapore have also been extremely helpful in the development of this work: Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (SBMI), Buruh Migran Yogyakarta (Infest), Wisma Bahasa (Yogyakarta), Koalisi Perempuan Cilacap, Yayasan Kembang, Solidaritas Perempuan, Daya Anisa, Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia Family Network (IFN), Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (ATKI), and Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME). In particular, I would like to thank Jolovan Wham, Bu Erna Murniaty, Mas Hariyanto, Mba Maizidah Salas, Mas Aan, Mas Bobi Anwar Ma’Arif, Mas Fathulloh Muzamiel, Mba Fendy Sri Rahuyu, Pak Abdul Rahim Sitoris, Mba Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, and Nisrina Muthahari, for their time and patience, and for sharing their experiences as former migrants and/or persons who have worked for years with Indonesian migrant workers and relevant Indonesian state agencies. Institutional support during my extended fieldwork period in Indonesia was provided by the Center of Asian Pacific Studies (CAPS) at the University of Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta.
As an academic mentor and friend, Nicole Constable has continually inspired me to think, talk, and write about issues concerning gendered migration, precarious labor, and hope in critical and sensitive ways. Many aspects of this work grew out of and were shaped by her thoughtful and challenging questions, guidance, conversations, and editorial and writing advice over the years. This research also greatly benefited from the feedback and encouragement from other academic mentors, especially Joseph Alter, Andrew Weintraub, Gabriella Lukacs, and Laura Brown. For motivating me to publish and refine aspects of this project, I extend much appreciation to Koichi Iwabuchi, Andy Chih-Ming Wang, Daniel Goh, Leslie Butt, Harriot Beazley, and anonymous peer reviewers of various journal articles and this book manuscript. Catherine Allerton’s careful reading and pointers also contributed significantly in my revisions of this book for greater context and clarity. All remaining errors are my own.
Generous funding for my doctoral studies and fieldwork (on which this book was based) was provided over the years by the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor’s Research Fellowship in Chinese Studies, Social Science Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and the Institute of Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) research fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. Shorter field trips and conference travel were also possible thanks to the University of Pittsburgh’s Anthropology Department, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program (GSWS), Asian Studies Center, and the Indo-Pacific Council, in addition to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant: “Southeast Asian Women, Family and Migration in the Global Era”), the Centre of Asia-Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria, Canada, and the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). Very special gratitude goes to Phyllis Deasy, Lynn Lantz, and Linda Howard at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, for their knowledge, assistance, and patience in navigating university life and bureaucracy.
During the writing and revisions of this book, the following institutions in Chile generously supported me with space, time, and funds to complete the manuscript: the Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios Migratorios (PRIEM) and the Department of Anthropology at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, and the Centro de Estudios Políticos, Culturales y Sociales de América Latina (EPOCAL) at Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins. I am blessed to have for company colleagues armed with intellectual rigor and humor. To Choon Yen Khoo and Kellynn Wee at the National University of Singapore, I am grateful for the time you have taken to engage with extracts from the manuscript; our e-mail conversations made writing from South America a little less isolating. A million thanks to Carl Pearson for the meticulous copy-editing, and the wonderful editors and assistants at Indiana University Press for making this book a reality, especially Jennika Baines and Stephanie Smith.
Very special thanks to Venera Khalikova, Xi Jie Ng, Arika Garg, Corrie Tan, Dolly Schwartz, Shauhrat Chopra, Wenqi Shi, Jody Handoko, Belinda Raintung, Larissa Ranft, Mindy Clarke, Jaimie Adelson, Kim de Wit, Suzanna Eddyono, Anis Nahrawie, Archana Garg, Rajan Garg, Wei Ling Neo, Jia Qi Tan, and Carolina Ramírez. In so many different and profound ways, their support and humor have made this transnational six-year research and book project more enjoyable and possible. Finally, I am always indebted and thankful to Francisco Garrido, Yeow Khuen Chan, Phuan Seok Ee, Samuel and Colleen Chan, for their enduring love, support, and faith.
An earlier version of Chapter 2 appeared in Sustainability 6, no. 10 (2014), and some material in Chapter 3 was published as part of an article in Global Networks 14, no. 4 (2017). A shorter and different version of Chapter 6 was published as Chapter 8 in Precarious Belongings: Affect and Nationalism in Asia (2017), edited by Daniel Goh and Chih-ming Wang (London: Rowman & Littlefield International).
Note on Names and Indonesian Currency
M OST PERSONAL NAMES in this book are pseudonyms, except for officials quoted from news sources or official public speeches at events which I attended. This is in accordance with academic convention to safeguard the privacy and anonymity of those who spoke to me and participated in this research. For individuals facing particularly delicate social situations, I shared different aspects of their stories under two names, in order to deter possible identification. As per social convention in Java, where appropriate, I refer to persons with gendered honorifics of Mba (Miss or older sister), Bu (Mrs), Mas (brother), or Pak (Mr). For ease of ref