Nimboran migration to Jayapura Irian Jaya and rural-urban ties

Abstract

This thesis deals with Nimboran Migration to Jayapura and the relationship of the migrants with their rural relatives. The data for this thesis was gathered from the Asano-Hedam villages in urban Abepura-Jayapura, supported by a limited amount of 1971 and 1980 census data. This study found that the factors that cause the migrants to move are primarily urban pull factors located in Jayapura. This is rather different from Toraja in South Sulawesi and Java. These factors (the desire for wage employment, money and industrial goods) are important in motivating migration but still are not the main factors drawing the migrants to Jayapura rather than other urban centres. The location of urban relatives appears to be the most powerful intervening opportunity encouraging the migrants to move to Jayapura most specifically. The migrants were sure their basic needs could be met by urban relatives as part of the Nimboran social system of mutual assistance and interdependency. The migrants maintained their urban-rural ties with rural relatives despite long periods of urban residence. These were manifested in the migrants' gifts and respect given to rural relatives, which served as socio-psychological, rather than as economic, investment. The Nimboran rural-urban migration did not significantly increase the socio-economic standard of migrants and rural households and therefore did not tend to equilibrate opportunities and incomes between the rural and urban sectors.