The purpose of this study aimed to explain the flow of communication in Indonesian female migrant workers’ protection by the government through the Migrant Worker Family Community (KKBM). The method used in this study was qualitative with a case study approach. The existence of Indonesian female migrant workers has contributed to state revenues of up to US$ 10.97 billion in 2018. This income is higher than the state income of the mining sector. The amount of income provided by female migrant workers to the country is not proportional to the protection services they receive. Most female migrant workers and families preferred to keep the case they face and would report it when it becomes a crisis. Some claims faced by female migrant workers conflict with a employer because of unpaid salaries and inappropriate work. It happens because female migrant workers and families do not know the flow of the case reporting scheme. The pathway for protecting female migrant workers involves a variety of government agencies and private companies. Each institution has its protection program, such as the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian migrant workers (BNP2TKI), the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Indonesian Migrant Workers Distribution Company, without explicit coordination between each institution. One of the aspects of protection strategies through the BNP2TKI is to create the Migrant Worker Family Community (KKBM) as a bridge in providing protection services directly to female migrant workers and families. The program is run bottom-up by involving Ex-migrant workers as the driving force (CO); one of them is like in the Cirebon district. Government communication with female migrant workers and families through Cirebon KKBM is carried out in a multi-step flow communication by combining direct communication and media. The KKBM communicated directly to female migrant workers (candidates) and families to socialize programs supported by pamphlets regarding job vacancy, people's business credit submission procedures, information about the BP2TKI's regulation, and other supporting information. The results of the assistance are then reported by the provincial government (BP3TKI) via telephone or WhatsApp Group and required meetings. Unfortunately, the KKBM socialization process was hampered by the busy activities of the KKBM activists and the government, which focused on the success of this program on the KKBM's CO with a minimal budget and supporting facilities

Abstract

Policymakers and much of the migration literature have long worried that the majority of remittances are used for consumption purposes, not savings or investment, reducing their long-term development potential. One of the main policy responses to try and increase savings from remittances and improve financial management among remittance receivers has been the introduction of financial literacy programs for migrants and/or their families.

Researchers from the World Bank conducted a randomized experiment in Indonesia in the context of a pilot program on financial literacy for female overseas migrant workers and their families. The program was developed as a partnership between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank, and implemented in Greater Malang area and Blitar District of East Java Province. The training program emphasized financial planning and management, savings, debt management, sending and receiving remittances, and understanding migrant insurance. One key policy question is whether such information is best delivered to the migrant worker herself, to someone in their remaining household, or to both. The experiment directly tested these options using three treatment groups: a group in which only the migrant worker receives training, a group in which the main remittance receiver or decision-maker in the remaining household receives training, and a group in which both receive training.

The baseline survey was conducted on a rolling basis from February to June 2010 to coincide with the training cycle. After the training, three rounds of follow-up surveys were administered to family members left behind. The follow-up surveys were conducted from March 2011 to January 2012, at time intervals corresponding to the migrant being 9, 15, and 19 months abroad on average. The follow-up data was then used to measure impacts on the financial knowledge, behaviors, and remittance and savings outcomes of the remaining household.

Researchers collaborated with Malang's Manpower and Transmigration Office and 11 migrant workers' recruiting agencies (PPTKIS) based in Greater Malang to obtain a sample of 400 migrant workers and their families.

Geographic coverage

Greater Malang

Analysis unit

• Migrant workers
• Family members of migrant workers

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The recruitment of respondents was conducted on a rolling basis, with the project team periodically contacting the 11 PPTKIS (Privately-owned Indonesian Manpower Placement Company) to obtain lists of workers originating in the Greater Malang and Blitar districts who were recruited by these companies to work abroad. The PPTKIS selected workers who were either staying in their dormitory facilities while undergoing training, or otherwise lived close by. These PPTKIs recruit both males and females, but the males typically do not come and stay in dormitory accommodation, so males were only selected if they lived nearby. They did not screen workers for interest in participating in training, so the workers should be considered as broadly representative of Indonesian female migrants. Researchers set a target sample size of 400 households, and continued to collect workers in batches from these recruiting agencies until this target had been met.

As batches of worker names were received from the PPTKIS, they were entered by project staff onto an Excel worksheet in the order listed by the PPTKIS, and a random number generator used to assign individuals to a treatment status. Since batches of workers were often not of size divisible by four, and were of varying numbers, and that the only information available on the workers was basic data supplied by the PPTKIS, the research team did not stratify the randomization. The sample of 400 migrant workers was randomly assigned into one of the following groups:

• Treatment A: Financial literacy training is provided to the migrant worker only
• Treatment B: Financial literacy training is provided to the migrant worker's household member only
• Treatment C: Financial literacy training is provided separately to both the migrant workers and to their household members
• Group D: Control group with no financial literacy training provided

Out of the sample of 400 migrant workers, this random assignment resulted in 101 migrant households being assigned to treatment A, 97 - to treatment B, 98 - to treatment C, and 104 - to a control group.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

BackgroundGlobally, 390 million dengue virus infections occur per year. In Malaysia, migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to dengue fever (DF) due to mosquito breeding sites exposure and poor health literacy. Therefore, this study aimed to (i) assess the current DF knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), and (ii) identify strategies to promote DF awareness, among migrant workers in Klang Valley.MethodA survey was conducted with 403 Nepali, Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers through phone interviews and online self-administered questionnaires. Piecewise structural equation modelling was applied to identify predictor variables for DF KAP.ResultsMost respondents were male, working in the services industry, had completed high school, aged between 30–39 years and with less than ten years work experience in Malaysia. Overall, respondents’ knowledge was positively correlated with attitude but negatively with practices. Older respondents, who had completed higher education, obtained higher knowledge scores. Similarly, those with working experience of >20 years in Malaysia obtained higher attitude scores. Respondents with a previous history of DF strongly considered the removal of mosquito breeding sites as their own responsibility, hence tended to frequently practise DF preventive measures. Respondents’ knowledge was also positively correlated to their understanding of DF information sourced from social media platforms.ConclusionThese findings highlighted: (i) the need for targeted DF educational intervention among younger and newly arrived workers with lower levels of education and (ii) maximising the usage of social media platforms to improve DF public awareness.

As of 2020, the number of immigrants in Malaysia amounted to approximately 3.48 million. As one of the biggest economies in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is an attractive destination for workers from neighboring countries seeking better wages and employment.

Indonesians make up the majority of immigrants
With their shared culture, religion and a very similar language, Indonesia was the single biggest contributor of immigrants to Malaysia. Indonesians also make up the bulk of migrant workers there, with many having sought employment in construction, agriculture, or as domestic helpers. In 2017, however, the estimated number of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia differed from the official numbers given by the Indonesian government, indicating a significant portion who might have undertaken the journey to work in Malaysia illegally.

Perceptions on immigration
Immigration is a sensitive topic in Malaysia, and more Malaysians seemed to view it negatively than positively. Immigrants, especially those in Malaysia illegally, are routinely blamed for a host of problems from crime to loss of jobs, and Malaysians seemed to believe that there were more immigrants than there actually were in the country. Despite their misgivings, however, Malaysia needed these immigrants to take on jobs that most locals would not do and to make up for the shortage of manpower it faced.

Dengue fever prevention knowledge, attitude and practice survey raw data (403 respondents).

In 2023, there were approximately 286,300 foreigners employed as migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore. That year saw the highest number of migrant domestic workers employed in Singapore in the last decade. Who qualifies as a migrant domestic worker in Singapore? Migrant domestic workers, locally known as maids, make up the second-largest group of foreign workers in Singapore. MDWs must be women between 23 and 50 years from approved source countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, who come to Singapore to be helpers in the home. Women applying for this permit must have a minimum of eight years of formal education and undergo medical screening for infectious diseases before being eligible to work. Upon commencing work, their responsibilities range between general housekeeping, childcare duties, and caring for elderly or sick family members. Maids in Singapore – a system rife for abuse? MDWs in Singapore work long hours and are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Singapore does not have a minimum wage for MDWs, with salaries ranging from 300 to 650 Singapore dollars a month, markedly below the average monthly salary in Singapore. These women are wholly dependent on their employers for shelter, food, and income. As there are no regulations for working hours for MDWs, many work more than the average paid hours of a regular employee. Only from January 1, 2023, would employers be legally required to give their MDWs one mandatory rest day a month that could not be replaced by monetary compensation.

Types of education access for undocumented and non-citizen children in Malaysia.

In 2020, Indonesians made up the largest group of Asian immigrants in the country, with around 1.24 million such immigrants there. In that year, close to 11 percent of the Malaysia population were immigrants.

In 2021, Malaysia sent more than five times the value of remittances towards other countries than it received from money transfers from abroad. This is according to a ranking that attempts to map out the flow of such money transfers. Remittances refer to cross-border payments to family or friends and are often associated with migrant workers sending money back home to friends or relatives back in their communities of origin. It is estimated that about one in seven people worldwide are involved with remittances - substantially impacting payment behavior in, especially, Asia and Latin America. For Malaysia, the top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 included Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines. Malaysia's main sources for remittances were Singapore, Bangladesh, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Over one third of the overall value of remittances sent from Singapore went towards China in 2021, according to a ranking that tries to map out the flow of such money transfers. Remittances refer to cross-border payments to family or friends and are often associated with migrant workers sending money back home to friends or relatives back in their communities of origin. It is estimated that about one in ***** people worldwide are involved with remittances - substantially impacting payment behavior in, especially, Asia and Latin America. Singapore stands out in this reporting as it is the one of the few countries that did not register a remittance inflow. The source did not specify why this is the case. Singapore's top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 were largely in Asia, as it included China, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Malaysia and Singapore accounted for a combined ** percent of the total outflow of remittance-sending countries in Southeast Asia in 2021. Remittances from the 12 countries and territories in this region ranged from ** million U.S. dollars to ************* U.S. dollars, with countries like Indonesia or the Philippines accounting for roughly *** percent and ***** percent of Southeast Asia's outflow, respectively. Remittances refer to cross-border payments to family or friends and are often associated with migrant workers sending money back home to friends or relatives back in their communities of origin. It is estimated that about one in ***** people worldwide are involved with remittances - substantially impacting payment behavior in, especially, Asia and Latin America. Southeast Asia's outflow largely stayed within Asia, especially within both Southeast Asia itself and South Asia - which includes India.

The value of remittances received in Pakistan was over 500 times the size of the country's remittance outflow, with most money from Pakistan going to Afghanistan in 2021. This is according to a ranking that attempts to map out the flow of such money transfers. Remittances refer to cross-border payments to family or friends and are often associated with migrant workers sending money back home to friends or relatives back in their communities of origin. It is estimated that about one in seven people worldwide are involved with remittances - substantially impacting payment behavior in, especially, Asia and Latin America. For Pakistan, the top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 included - largely - Afghanistan, and to a much lesser extent China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Pakistan's main sources for remittances were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Kuwait.

In 2018, the majority of the expatriates residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hailed from India, with a population size of around 2.6 million. The expatriate population made up the vast majority of the country’s total population, at around 89 percent as of 2018.

 UAE Economy 

With a real gross domestic product growth rate of 1.7 percent in 2018, the UAE is one of the biggest economies in the region. (1143018) Since its discovery of oil in the mid 90’s, the country has transformed and has become a regional hub. It has demonstrated significant growth in various economics sectors, driven by the country’s shift in focus from the hydrocarbons sector. (1143358) Along with low levels of unemployment, this has led to the influx of workers from diverse nationalities.

 Migration figures

The UAE is one of the top countries worldwide to attract global talent. (1039195) In 2018, around a quarter of million people migrated from the Philippines to work in the UAE. (880782) In comparison, the number of Indonesian workers amounted to less than 0.6 thousand in 2019.