Emigrants are often considered a loss for their country of origin but they can also play an important role in fostering trade and economic development, notably through the skills and contacts they have acquired abroad. If they choose to return, their re‑integration into the labour market and society will be facilitated by the fact that they speak the local language, have specific social capital and possess local qualifications that are readily recognised by employers.

International emigration patterns from Indonesia first consist of low-skilled temporary labour migration flows to non-OECD countries. The annual number of Indonesian temporary migrant workers deployed overseas has significantly declined over the past decade, from 645 000 in 2008 to 276 500 in 2019. This decline results from the successive bans imposed by the Indonesian government in the early 2010s on sending migrant workers to Middle Eastern countries, following the increasing number of complaints of abuse and exploitation of Indonesian migrant women.

This chapter examines recent trends in emigration from Indonesia to the main OECD and non-OECD destination countries. In order to better understand the recent evolution in emigration flows, this chapter first traces the historical context of emigration from Indonesia, particularly since its independence from the Netherlands. Given the importance of temporary labour migration flows of Indonesian nationals to Asian and Middle Eastern countries, the chapter analyses the recent evolution and nature of these flows using available information on the placement of Indonesian migrant workers. The chapter further examines recent migration flows to the main OECD destination countries using data on residence permits issued to Indonesian nationals. Finally, the last section examines emigration intentions among the Indonesian population and the main determining factors of the desire to emigrate.

This chapter provides an overview of the number of Indonesian emigrants living in OECD countries and selected non-OECD economies and its evolution since the beginning of the 2000s. The chapter further discusses their socio-demographic characteristics – gender, educational attainment, and citizenship status, across destination countries. Emigrants from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the foreign-born populations living in OECD countries are used as comparison groups. The regional distribution of Indonesian emigrants in the main OECD destination countries is also presented. This chapter shows that Indonesian emigrants’ socio-demographic characteristics vary greatly across destination countries, reflecting diverse migration patterns and processes of migration.

This chapter analyses the labour market integration of Indonesian emigrants in main OECD destination countries through several key indicators such as labour market participation, employment and unemployment rates. These results are also analysed by sex, educational attainment, length of stay and citizenship status, as well as across destination countries and over time. Finally, the chapter examines the distribution of Indonesian emigrants across sectors and occupations in selected OECD destination countries, with a particular focus on over‑qualification rates. The chapter systematically compares the outcomes of Indonesian emigrants to the outcomes of emigrants from the ASEAN countries, the foreign-born and native populations of the OECD countries.

The Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries (DIOC) covers the OECD destination countries for which data were collected both in 2000/01, 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16. The main sources of DIOC data are national administrative registers and population censuses. In the censuses carried out in 2000/01, almost all OECD countries collected information on the country of origin of emigrants, so that it became possible to have an comprehensive overview of the numbers of migrants in OECD countries (for more general information on DIOC, see d’Aiglepierre et al. (2020[1]). Where censuses were not available or incomplete, labour force surveys were used as a substitute.