Population Case Study - Transmigration in Indonesia Flashcards
What is transmigration?
A policy that aims to move people from densely populated areas to sparsely populated and provide them with opportunities to improve their quality of life.
What is the population of Indonesia?
Around 240,000,000 - 4th most populated country in the world.
Which islands were overpopulated?
Java and Bali
Which islands did most people move from/to?
From Java and Bali to West Papua.
Why did the Indonesian government want to introduce transmigration?
There weren’t enough resources to go around.
Overcrowding was a big problem.
High proportion of people lived in shanty developments; disease spread quickly because of the lack of space and bad conditions.
Describe Indonesia? Idk give some facts about Indonesia
In South East Asia.
It is an archipelago, made up of over 17,000 islands.
4th most populous country in the world.
Growth rate of over 1% a year.
10% of the world’s rainforests are in the outer islands of Indonesia, where most of the people moved to.
What is the birth rate/death rate of Indonesia?
The birth rate is 18.1/1000 and the death rate is 6.3/1000.
How many people were involved in the transmigration policy in its peak years (1979-1984)?
2.5 million people; 1 million people settled in West Papua alone.
What were people given for moving to less populated islands?
A new home and a living allowance for 18 months- a “chance to become land owners”.
What were the social problems with the policy?
Indigenous people were denied their land rights.
There were allegations that the resettlement was done to control indigenous populations.
Rather than stop poverty, the scheme just moved poverty from Bali and Java to the outer islands.
Rather than stop poverty, the scheme just moved poverty from Bali and Java to the outer islands. Migrants were actually worse off because of poor planning, poor access to markets, neglect of soil and lack of water.
Made virtually no difference to the population pressures in Java.
There have been violent conflicts between migrants and indigenous people.
What were the economic problems with the policy?
Each family cost US$7,000 which caused Indonesia great national debt; the policy was seen as an economic disaster.
What were the environmental problems with the policy?
Indonesia contains 10% of the world’s rainforests; transmigration caused them to be destroyed, species to become endangered and indigenous people to be denied their land rights.
Mass overgrazing destroyed the soil in many areas.
New settlements were built in areas previously not touched by humans.
Why did transmigration not solve Indonesia’s population problem?
All the transmigration policy did was move poverty out of the densely populated islands; they did nothing to lower their high birth rate.
What were the economic advantages of the policy?
Population gained money from the government.
Landless people were given land (2 hectares) to farm on and gain money.
Unemployment reduced in Java; less people claimed money from the government.
What were the social advantages of the policy?
Less overcrowding in Java; strain on vital services like hospitals lessened.
Unemployment reduced in Java; less social unrest.
