Dec 05, 2019 Last Updated 11:46 PM, Dec 3, 2019

Inside Indonesia

Labour Migration

Roadside medicine men

Bootleg medicine sales are part of Indonesia’s healthcare infrastructure

Multiplier effects on the Bombana goldfields

A photo of the front of a Toyota dealership.

Benefits ripple outwards but local government struggles to regulate the process

A room of one’s own

Source: Brigitta Isabella

Mobile libraries and writers clubs reveal a rich reading and writing culture among Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong

In sickness and in wealth

Double-storey modern house funded by a migrant in Hong Kong - Carol Chan

Village morality complicates our assumptions about what it means to ‘succeed’ as a migrant worker

Bridging the divide after conflict

A new emerging market, Pasar Waiheru. Photo: Hatib Kadir

A recent visit to Ambon shows that trade is helping to bridge the divide in a religiously segregated society

Back with a vengeance

Indonesian migrant workers hone their activist sensibilities at a protest in Hong Kong - istolethetv at flickr.com

Former migrant workers are finding new empowerment in the bureaucratic jungle of legal aid

Wasted talent

Wasted talent

Returned migrant workers have much to offer, but have trouble achieving recognition for the skills they’ve developed abroad

Costly inducements

Costly inducements

Pocket money given to intending migrant domestic workers comes at a price

Passports optional

Passports optional

Indonesian migrant workers without visas - or sometimes even passports - rely on the help of middlemen to get past immigration checkpoints into East Malaysia

A matter of luck

A matter of luck

Migrant domestic workers aspire to more than their home communities can offer and are willing to take risks to change their lives

American dreams

American dreams

Undocumented Indonesian migrant labourers - known locally as kuli dollar - work long hours in difficult conditions in search of prosperity in Philadelphia

Token gestures

Token gestures

Despite recent government negotiations, Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia remain disempowered

Oppressed and they know it

Oppressed and they know it

Indonesian fishers in Taiwan are beginning to fight back

Leaving Indonesia

Leaving Indonesia

As this edition shows, the choices faced by those who leave Indonesia for work are anything but simple

Learning to lead

Learning to lead

Against the odds, Indonesian domestic workers have achieved real change in Hong Kong

Rulers in their own country?

Rulers in their own country?

Special autonomy and Papuan aspirations have been thwarted by Jakarta and hampered by the administrative fragmentation sponsored by local politicians

Tangguh goes onstream

Tangguh goes onstream

BP’s massive LNG project is due to begin operations in late 2008, despite social and environmental costs

Brothers in arms

Brothers in arms

Papuan footballers score goals against HIV.

Inventing Papua

Inventing Papua

Migrants from South Sulawesi have played an important role in manufacturing a Papuan identity

Seeking Soeparno

Seeking Soeparno

A man who left his home to work in a plantation half-way around the world

Latest Articles

Fiction: Pasung

Nov 22, 2019 - MAYESTICA DE JONG

/ Andrea Star Reese for Human Rights Watch

His gaze is fixated on an indeterminate spot behind me, his arms hang loosely by his sides. Wearing nothing but a pair of faded black shorts, his ribs and collar...

Contraception at a crossroads

Nov 11, 2019 - LOUISA-ANNE BUWALDA

Adam Cohn @Flickr

Indonesia’s 50-year-old family planning program has been a great success but is struggling to adapt with women’s needs

Hunger and culture in West Papua

Oct 30, 2019 - SOPHIE CHAO

Indigenous Marind in rural Merauke have traditionally depended on the forest for their subsistence / Sophie Chao

Oil palm projects are causing hunger in Merauke, both literal and symbolic

Book reviews: Telling the Dutch colonial wars in Aceh and South Sulawesi

Oct 08, 2019 - JOOST COTE

Essay: Letter from Jakarta

Sep 29, 2019 - ABDUL SAMAD HAIDARI

Refugees protest in Makassar, February 2018 / Ali Froghi

Living in the midst of uncertainty

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A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar