Social
Science and Humanity
The Changing of Lifestyle and fading Work Disorientation from The Effect of Interest: The Case Study of Migrant Workers in South Korea
Author Names:
- Muhammad Justian Pradinata
Faculty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
- Muhammad Nadhol
Faculty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
- Noverva Pradina Pramesti
Faculty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
noverva_pradina@yahoo.com
- M. Ikhsan Kamil R.
Fakulty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
- RA Safitri Kusumawardhani
Fakulty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
- Melly Afissyah
Fakulty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
- Ritno Nursakti
Fakulty of Law
Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
ritnonursakti@yahoo.com
Advicer Lecturer:
Heru Susetyo, SH LL.M. M.Si
Lecturing Staff/Secretary of Magister Program
Fakultas Hukum, Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
heru.susetyo@gmail.com
Abstract—
The Effects of high Population Growth in Indonesia, the lack of the ability of
the private sector and lack of employment for people by the government, cause a
lot of unemployment in Indonesia. Then, this contradiction will occur when it
faced with the opportunity to work in other countries especially in South
Korea. It was the reason why South Korea became the destination for finding a
job. Indonesia with sending the workers to South Korea are expected the workers
to be able to add their expertise, skills and knowledge from their destination
country and be able to apply it again when they arrive in Indonesia. Although
in the end, the expected conditions are not fully achieved due to lifestyle
changes and conflicts of interest on his return to Indonesia.
Keywords-component:
Indonesian workers, Placement and Protection, Welfare)
I.
INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1)
Welfare
for all citizens is a goal to be achieved by each State. This goal can be
achieved through the implementation of national development. The new national
development itself can be realized with the economic growth. Indonesia as a
developing country must also have the same goal of welfare of the entire
people, and it is well recognized by policy makers that welfare of the entire
people of Indonesia can only be achieved if the conduct of economic development
and sustainable simultaneously. But the obstacles of the implementation of this
are related to the classical problem that must be faced by Indonesia and in
developing countries in general. This problem occurs because the average of
developing countries has particularly high population growth and it will
certainly have an impact on the number of people who have taken care of by the
government, It is in fact not be a problem if the private sector goes well and
that many residents will not be a burden for the government, which became a
problem in Indonesia is the fact that the private sector cannot provide jobs
for the entire population of Indonesia. Therefore, the Government still has a
great responsibility to provide jobs for the people of Indonesia. In fact, the
government is not able to fulfill that big resposibility. On the other hand the
development of information and technology create a new era. The new era is
called globalization which opens Indonesia eyes to the existence of other
countries beside Indonesia. It causes the nation borders blur and it opens
Indonesian people eyes that they can find jobs in the other countries. When
Indonesian people know about the high economic growth in the other countries, it
makes people more interested in getting the jobs. In this case, South Korea is
one of the popular destination workplace. The reason is the economic situations
in South Korea are better than in Indonesia. If this is considered in terms of
reduced burden on governments to "take care" of unemployment then it
(the labor export to South Korea) is a beneficial thing. But we need to look
further than the social aspect. Wether it changes work ethics of Indonesian
workers or not. Change is presumably due to cultural patterns of work in South
Korea that demanding labor industrialist who worked there to have a high work
ethic. Or whether it was with the pressure of the working culture of South
Korea to make the workers returning from South Korea did not make a change
which means that after they came back with the results (in the form of
expertise, experience and of science), but the result was not processed
properly, it will be discussed in this paper.
II. EASE
OF USE
Regarding
the writing of this paper, as mentioned earlier, we will present problems of
Indonesian Migrant Workers working in South Korea and focused on the placement
of migrant workers to the problem at the time of their employment contracts run
out. That is because given the demand for labor in Korea to be placed in some
job sectors continued to increase so it is interesting to study more
comprehensively. The usefulness of the discussion of this issue is as
fundamental to know how the workers in South Korea at the time of placement and
how the lives of their status when the contract runs out and returned to
Indonesia. Does life get better or vice versa? In addition, discussion about
migrant workers in South Korea can serve as a comparison to workers in other
countries in order to look for the facts that exist. Thus, the expected
placement and the protection and empowerment of former migrant workers in Korea
can be resolved by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as well as
possible.
III. INDONESIAN WORKERS RANGE
Labor
is the entire population of working age who can potentially produce goods or
services with a wage or salary in return from their work. Regarding employment
will be linked between superiors and subordinates as an employer, as the
executor on the orders of superiors which would essentially create a working
relationship. Regarding the TKI, Indonesia is one of the largest labor
exporting countries in terms of foreign demand for work at some employment sectors,
where at least 450,000 people each year an Indonesian citizen sent abroad to
become migrant workers (TKI).[1]
There are two kinds of Labor sent by Indonesia to outside countries, namely:
i. Skilled Workforce
ii. Unskilled Workers who work on a
temporary basis, called the Indonesian migrant workers
Regarding
skilled labor in this case is that labor does have expertise working at one of
the sector, while the definition of unskilled labor is labor that works on a
temporary basis and they are usually less educated or uneducated.[2] By looking at the data presented above, we
can see that Indonesia is one country that labor demand by some foreign
countries.
There
are several reasons why our workers want to work abroad. The main reason
underlying their desire to work abroad is Economics problems. Low wages and
hard to find jobs in their own country are factors that encourages them to take
risks in the land of their fate. The data gives the unemployment rate in
Indonesia is quite high at about 9.25 million people for 2011 and has decreased
in 2012, reaching 8.12 million. Things that are so encouraging our workers to
work abroad, although they do not know the negative consequences they may get
when they work abroad. However, the problems faced by migrant workers now is
that most of the migrants prefer the illegal migration process with a number of
reasons including the procedures to become a legal migrant Indonesia is
extremely inefficient, complicated and very expensive. In addition, work abroad
with the official line is also not guaranteed to work safely and be protected
even been through Indonesia Manpower Services Company (recruitment agency).[3] As for now is for its own recruitment agency
has been replaced by BNP2TKI (National Agency for Placement and Protection of
Indonesian Workers) where the duties of BNP2TKI are doing the placement and
protection of migrant workers as stipulated in Law No. 39 of 2004 On the
Placement and Protection of migrant workers in the State the country. As
explained below, the workers who go through official channels are not
necessarily guaranteed to work properly, so that many workers who choose the
path where the official cannot harm the state. So in essence, the main purpose
of the workers is to improve the welfare both financially and in the field of
social life when it has arrived in the homeland.
IV. WORK
SECTOR OF INDONESIAN WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREA
Naturally
the question here is what job sectors that will be obtained by prospective
migrant workers. We have been described that there are two kinds of workers,
namely the first, workers who have skills and education, and second, workers
who lack the skills or education that is often referred to as migrant workers.
In this case, the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian
Workers (BNP2TKI) is working to expand the sector of employment for the
workers. Please note that the current TKI BNP2 strategy has made two attempts
to overcome this problem, efforts are as follows:
- BNP2TKI conducts an assessment of non-traditional state or country that is rarely a destination for Indonesian migrant workers, such as the European countries and others.
- BNP2TKI diversification efforts in the Country. The intention is for example in countries where quotas for Korean workers covering only 3 or 4 different types of sectors only, then the diversification efforts, the labor sector will likely open more than 3 or 4 types only, and certainly based on the agreement between Korea and Indonesia.
BNP2TKI
said that the sector of employment for the workers is divided into two parts,
namely, formal employment sector and informal employment sector. Formal
employment sector is the field of employment in legal entities, such as working
at the company, and so on. Informal employment sector is the people who work at
the individual, such as maids, nannies, and so forth. In terms of scope of
employment in South Korea according to sources we interviewed that there is
only from the formal employment sector and mostly in the form of labor in the
factory. South Korea has now become an industrial country requires a lot of
manpower to run the economy in the country as seen from a small population that
is approximately as many as 50 million lives in 2007 because its population has
reached 48,456,369 million people with the population density 498 people per
kilometer square[4], with the provision of
quotas for migrant workers alone amounted to 10 500 chance (2012) which have
increased from 2011 to only 6,300 people.[5] Course can be seen just how much labor is
needed by South Korea from surrounding countries. Especially from some sources
that say that South Korea is expected to experience labor shortages in 2014,
while workers who work such as the Domestic Worker, Baby Sitter in South Korea,
according to the informant was not there. Patterns in the industrialized
countries of South Korea also has an effect on the work in South Korea, also according to sources we
spoke with there is a difference between working atmosphere there when compared
to the work situation in Indonesia, although the difference was not significant
(our sources provide an assessment of the level of employment density in there
4 to 1 when compared with in Indonesia) but makes the work ethic of people
working in South Korea automatically increased when compared with when working
in a factory in Indonesia. Place of work available in South Korea also vary but
most are in the industrial sector (factory workers) only a few are classified
as professional and if there is recruitment rather than through normal recruitment
but it usually comes from the Internal company, the administrative labor
outside of Korea south to work in South Korea has also been integrated in a
systematic way between the companies, immigration, and the representatives of
countries of origin to the workforce so that detailed matters such as where the
workforce is working will be known by the immigration authorities to then be
communicated to the representatives of the country of origin workers, given
that labor regulations are strictly enforced and it would also impact on the
protection of workers there, the protection will be described in subsequent
chapters.
V. PROTECTION
OF INDONESIAN WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREA
Of
course the problem of protection is very important to discuss. Protection of
Indonesian migrant workers in South Korea according to the sources we
interviewed more initiated by the NGO, which concern the labor problems there,
or through established communities of labor between Indonesia, the role of the
government representatives of the Republic of Indonesia in terms of this is the
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (Embassy) to South Korea in terms of not
providing solutions to help our workers. Protection of migrant workers here the
goal is to fulfill what the rights of migrant workers, such as the right to get
the kind of work according to skills and employment agreements, the right to a
wage / salary is humane, the right to enjoy the facilities there, etc.
Therefore, in this case the role of the National Agency for Placement and
Protection of Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI) is huge to address these issues well
before they are migrant workers in destination countries as well as during
their stay in the destination country to return to homeland.
VI. INDONESIAN
WORKERS CONDITION AFTER RETURNING TO INDONESIA
There
are some positive impacts that the government expects from the workers who go
to work to South Korea are when they return to Indonesia they can apply their
knowledge that they have learned from South Korea and they can work in
Indonesia. But, the reality is different from the expectation. Not all the
Indonesian workers who work in South Korea want to do such a thing. Based on
the sources that we interviewed before, most of the Indonesian workers who work
in South Korea become very consumptive after they comeback to Indonesia. After
their money is gone, most of them decide to go back to South Korea to work up
there again. These are the influential factors:
1. Better
economy rate in South Korea than in Indonesia.
In
South Korea with the same working time and the same type of work will earn
income that can be ten-fold difference when compared to in Indonesia, so of
course work in South Korea would be a tempting option for workers in Indonesia,
although it is comparable with distance that must be taken between Indonesia
and South Korea.
2. A
free state in South Korea.
Environment
in South Korea with more freedom in Indonesia, on the subject can be seen from
the positives and negatives. From the positive side, namely the freedom to
voice opinions and make associations that are common places background, origin
or religion of the work is appreciated that such associations are common
religious backgrounds can develop and integrated between one region to another
(source we spoke to example is Indonesia's Muslim community exists among the
citizens of Indonesia in Korea) but viewed from the negative side there is a
free environment. Like for example in the case of prostitution in South Korea
is a legal thing so that it had little impact on the social conditions for
citizens of Indonesia who worked there, then another example is the culture of
consuming liquor is prevalent from South Koreans. So this is what sometimes
makes the workers we become comfortable and want to return to South Korea.
3.
The increasing population of citizens in Korea.
Remembering
the number of Indonesian citizens in South Korea well they work or continue
their education there, a motivating factor for workers to not afraid to try his
fortune in South Korea. When compared with workers from other countries,
migrant workers in South Korea's welfare level is slightly better than those
from other countries such as Japan, Malaysia and so on. Based on the results of
our interview with one former migrant worker in South Korea, most of his
colleagues who had been as other state workers returned to Indonesia after
moving to South Korea. Because according to them, a migrant worker in South
Korea is more humane impressive compared with other countries. Given the number
of citizens in South Korea, the workers are not afraid to feel if one day
things happen that are not desirable.
4. South Korea's progress very rapidly in
the Field of Science and Technology (Science and Technology).
With
South Korea's status as one of the countries in Asia with the progress in the
field of science and technology is amazing, making the workers to think and be
tempted to work there even though sometimes we do not yet know how the workers
a good mechanism if you want to work in South Korea, especially in the field of
industry. The workers think with the rapid advances in Korea, they will get a
decent job and decent salary as well. This reasoning was used by the workers to
choose South Korea.
5.
Cultural diversity of South Korea.
Uniqueness
and diversity of all areas of the pattern of South Korean culture is one factor
that affects the workers to choose Korea as a place to work. South Korea is a
country with a culture that is not inferior to Indonesia. In addition to work,
the workers also need refreshing to enjoy the culture of South Korea that had
been in Indonesia often they see on TV, either in a Drama Series impressions of
Korea, Korean music and so on. Besides the culinary culture of Korea could also
be an attraction for the workers to work in South Korea.
But
it was not all that Labor came home from work in South Korea back into it,
according to sources we interviewed, there are some people who returned from
South Korea but did not intend to return to work but would prefer to develop
themselves in Indonesia either find a suitable job with the knowledge that has
been obtained in South Korea or developing businesses as Entrepreneurs of the
capital that has been gained while working in Korea, there are a few things
into consideration of Indonesia's labor force, so do not want to return to
South Korea include:
1.
The existence of conditions that do not support.
In
this case the condition in question is the environmental conditions that can be
said to differ from those in Indonesia, South Korea has 4 seasons, namely
spring, summer, winter, and autumn, the average Indonesian people who work
there must be due to adaptation to first get used to tropical climate in
Indonesia where there are only two seasons namely the rainy season and dry
season.
2. Family
considerations.
One
of the factors that prevent barriers to work in South Korea is far from a
family which for some people is one of the things that heavy, it was revealed
by sources we interviewed that many workers who have worked there when thinking
back to Indonesia because of a problem family. This is especially true in the
labor force and a married man, in which they are based on communication factors
rather expensive because of the distance between South Korea and Indonesia are
quite far away, but this depends on the mind.
3.
Cultural differences with Indonesia. Like we have been alluded to in the
discussion above, there are some cultures that South Korea is seen as a
negative culture and not appropriate when applied in Indonesia. For example,
the culture of consuming liquor, probably in the Korea Strait that are common
in South Korea are considering the winter, where the South Korean community
consumption of liquor to keep warm. However, if practiced in Indonesia,
consumption of liquor is prohibited, but the outcome is not good for health
also in terms of religion is a sin for the consumption of liquor. The other
example is in terms of prostitution, prostitution in South Korea is free.
Therefore, it is impossible for workers to bring a culture-negative culture
into Indonesia. Other factor such as a TKI does not fit with Korean foods that
make the workers prefer to return to Indonesia.
4.
The cost is very expensive.
Financial
factors are very influential factors for a TKI. This is due to the inability of
the workers to meet the cost if you want to become migrant workers to South
Korea. Fee before departure to South Korea until they are in South Korea and
back to the homeland it requires no small cost. Even among some workers are
willing to sell his property such as rice paddies, fish ponds and so on just to
become migrant workers to South Korea, although workers did not know whether
his salary during the South Korean can cover their capital spend. Based on
statements from sources we interviewed, for a migrant worker to leave South
Korea alone would cost approximately Rp 43 million, - (forty three million rupiahs)
and does not include the cost of their daily lives there, although they will be
paid. This is what we think the main factor that led to why the workers would
prefer not to return to South Korea
All
these factors must have been the reason why the former South Korean workers do
not want to go back to South Korea and prefer self elicits in Indonesia.
VII. CONCLUSION
South
Korea is one of the main destination countries for the Indonesia migrant
workers (TKI). This was shown by the large number of workers who are in South
Korea as well as prospective migrants who want to seek his fortune there. It is
because of several factors, such as high levels of prosperity in South Korea.
With so many succed workers who work in South Korea, it also makes the other
workers interested to work in South Korea. In South Korea alone, the most
sector which need a lot of employees is the industry sector (factories), in
contrast to most other countries that are in the household sector as a servant.
And based on sources we found, for informal labor sector such as domestic
helpers, nannies, and others in South Korea did not exist.
With
the advancement of science and technology in South Korea, it can add the
knowledge of the workers, and also with increasing income obtained by the
workers, then directly improve the welfare of the people of Indonesia itself.
With a wide range of knowledge and capital earned by the workers in South
Korea, they often apply it when they got back to Indonesia. They can create new
jobs which is very useful and helpful to the process of national development.
But, some of them do not enjoy the results of their efforts in the overseas by
doing something productive or just be said as a consumer, they also are willing
to return to South Korea again without using the knowledge that they gained to
help develop the nation. The workers take many ways to get back to Korea,
whether it is legal or illegal. Based on the data we obtained from sources we
interviewed, most of the workers in South Korea, the successful return workers
is just a few, most of the workers are returning to South Korea, it is because
consumer culture is very large when they return to Indonesia and the workers do
not apply the knowledge they gained while working as migrant workers. In this
case, the role of the government of Indonesia is required in addressing the
welfare of the Indonesian Labor which as we know that there is a motto that
says "TKI as the State Foreign Exchange Heroes".
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Diunduh 23 April 2012.
Indonesia, Undang-undang
Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia. UU No. 39 Tahun 2004.
Kedutaan besar Korea Selatan
dalam, http://idn.mofat.go.kr/languages/as/idn/about/info/jumlah/index.jsp,
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Sunarto, Kamanto. Pengantar
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[1]
Tim Peneliti The Institute
for Ecosoc Rights, Atase Tenaga Kerja dan Perlindungan TKI, cet.1, (Jakarta: Tifa Foundation, 2010), hlm.
3.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Tim Peneliti The Institute
for Ecosoc Rights, Atase Tenaga Kerja dan Perlindungan TKI, cet.1, (Jakarta: Tifa Foundation, 2010), hlm.
3.
[4]
Kedutaan besar Korea
Selatan dalam, http://idn.mofat.go.kr/languages/as/idn/about/info/jumlah/index.jsp,
diunduh 22 April 2012.
[5]
Badan Nasional Penempatan
dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia, http://id.berita.yahoo.com/korsel-beri-kuota-10-500-tki-pada-2012-063013477.html,
diunduh 23 April 2012.
