The Socio-economic and Health Status of Rural-Urban Migrants in Indonesia

9 The Socio-economic and Health Status of Rural-Urban Migrants in Indonesia Budy P. Resosudarmo, Asep Suryahadi, Raden M. Purnagunawan, Athia Yumna and Asri Yusrina 1 INTRODUCTION The movement of people from rural to urban areas, popularly known as urbanization, is a common phenomenon observed all over the world during a country's process of development. The Harris-Todaro model has long been used to explain this phenomenon. In general, the prevalence of higher average incomes in urban areas has attracted large numbers of rural people to move to urban areas (Harris and Todaro 1970). Some rural residents move to urban areas to work in the formal sector and some to study, but many are self-employed or work illegally in some of the lowest-paid jobs in the informal sector. These rural-urban migrants have to adapt to a city lifestyle and compete to earn an income that meets their expectations. Some succeed but others certainly fail. It is also a well-established observation that migrants have to work harder to achieve the urban income they expect. They need to be willing to endure harsher conditions than non-migrants living in the same city. In pursuit of a better life, they often end up sacrificing their own health and that of their children (Gamier et al. 2003). In many cases, the hard work and anti-social hours worked by adult migrants divert their attention away from their children, particularly their children's educational performance (Batbaatar et al. 2005; Liang and Chen 2007). In Indonesia, rates of rural-to-urban migration increased...