Perspectives of Factory Workers in the Expansion of the Southeast Asian Metropolitan Area:

Abstract

This paper analyzes the current state of expansion of metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia, focusing on the movement of factory workers in the suburbs of Jakarta, Indonesia. The theory that has been driving the understanding of urbanization in developing countries since each country's independence after World War II is overurbanization. In addition, the “informal sector” of developing cities, which comprises a variety of miscellaneous urban businesses that are not reflected in official statistics, was the main target of our previous survey. However, in this paper, we focus on factory workers in suburban industrial estates to describe the current expansion of the metropolitan area. We administered a questionnaire survey to 636 resident inhabitants in A village, Bekasi, West Java. Results show that 88.8％ of the participants were newcomers. More than 80% of the participants came from Java, although the source of movement was not limited to the neighboring areas but spread throughout Java. An increase of contract employees since 2005 can be seen. A certain educational background is required for contract employment, not just permanent employment. Before being hired by an industrial estate, one must have knowledge and skills obtained at the high school level or above. Neighboring areas alone cannot provide enough of this type of labor. The conventional theory of excessive urbanization has focused on a surplus labor force that cannot be employed in the city. However, in the current Indonesian metropolitan area, many industrial estates have been created to meet foreign and domestic demand, and employment opportunities are continuously being created. Such a large number of contract employment positions also contributes to the movement of workers. The result of this study, using a quantitative case study, point out the necessity of focusing

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