Information, exploitation and empowerment: the case of Indonesian overseas workers

Abstract

The central significance of information in migration decision-making has long been recognized but its role in influencing international labor migration, one of the fastest growing types of international population movement, has been little examined. The paper takes the Indonesian case to demonstrate that in such migration the information available to potential migrants is limited and often distorted, which partly explains why many migrants encounter problems. It is argued that the timely provision of comprehensive, relevant and accurate information can better enable migrants to make decisions about migration which are likely to be in their own interests and it also can empower migrants to deal more effectively with exploitation.