Life Course Stages and Migration Behavior of the Indonesian Population

Elda L. Pardede, University of Groningen
Salahudin S. Muhidin, Université de Montréal

In the context of developing countries, and Indonesia is of no exception, while research does exist on migration and some live events as separate phenomena, little has been done on the way that migration and the life course stages are interlinked. The fact is that migration intertwines with individual’s actions over life course. Changes in the life cycle events of schooling, employment, and marriage may lead to a migration. Limitation on data sources is often mentioned as its main obstacles. This study attempts to fill this gap by utilizing the recent nationally representative data entitled IFLS (Indonesia Family Life Survey) that contains extensive histories of respondents’ biographic (life course). The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding the link between migration and life cycle stages in a life course framework and in the context of developing countries setting such as Indonesia.