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The governments policy to return transmigration program participants, due to the explosion of conflicts in transmigration areas outside Java in the early 2000s to the district where these people originated has raised many questions of citizen engagement. This study aims to identify the impacts of the policy on the returned transmigrants using the idea of citizenship as a framework of analysis. The field research was conducted from December 2012 to February 2013 in Southern Kebumen using in-depth interviews with about 20 informants and direct observations. From the fieldwork, it is found that instead of resolving the problem by returning thousands of transmigration participants, which then was followed with collective relocation, has made the issue more complex. This later aspect caused multiple exclusions to the returned transmigrants socially and politically. The case highlights the governments ignorance of the aspects of geography, ethnicity, cultures, religions, languages, and gender that define citizenship in the Indonesian context, and are impacted by the transmigration policy. Such ignorance has led to the acute political disengagement. Weak inclusion and over-simplification in the handling of the transmigration program (sending, returning, and relocating people from one place to another), due to the single definition of citizen and citizenship, which the government uses in treating people merely as materials for boosting economic growth, instead of as citizens that have rights for recognition, seems to be the core explanation of this case. By elaborating this issue, this paper is expected to enrich the existing study on citizenship, especially the core problems that relate to (forced) transmigration policy, which is rarely discussed among scholars.

The case of returned transmigrants relocation in Kebumen demonstrates that transmigration policy was implemented without sufficient consideration of social complexities.The policy disregarded the importance of cultural and social identities in defining citizenship within the Indonesian context, leading to multiple exclusions of the returned transmigrants.Clarification of responsibilities between the national and local governments is crucial to avoid overlapping and ineffective responses to such issues.Ultimately, a more nuanced understanding of citizenship, sensitive to the specific context of Indonesia, is needed to ensure inclusive and equitable policies.

Penelitian lebih lanjut perlu dilakukan untuk memahami secara mendalam bagaimana identitas lokal dan etnis memengaruhi proses integrasi sosial para transmigran kembali. Pertanyaan penelitian yang menarik adalah: bagaimana persepsi masyarakat lokal terhadap transmigran kembali memengaruhi partisipasi politik dan ekonomi mereka? Selain itu, perlu diteliti efektivitas berbagai pendekatan kebijakan dalam memfasilitasi integrasi sosial, seperti program pelatihan keterampilan yang disesuaikan dengan kebutuhan pasar kerja lokal atau inisiatif dialog antar-etnis. Penelitian ini dapat menguji hipotesis bahwa program integrasi yang melibatkan partisipasi aktif masyarakat lokal dan transmigran kembali akan menghasilkan hasil yang lebih positif. Terakhir, penelitian perlu mengeksplorasi peran pemerintah daerah dalam mengadvokasi kebutuhan transmigran kembali di tingkat nasional dan memastikan akses mereka terhadap layanan publik yang memadai. Hal ini dapat dilakukan dengan menganalisis kebijakan pemerintah daerah terkait transmigrasi dan mengidentifikasi praktik-praktik terbaik yang dapat direplikasi di daerah lain. Penelitian ini harus mempertimbangkan kompleksitas hubungan antara pemerintah pusat dan daerah dalam menangani masalah transmigrasi, serta potensi konflik kepentingan yang mungkin timbul.

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File size1.1 MB
Pages24
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