Home leaving and migration in Indonesia: evidence from four waves of the Indonesia family life survey 1993-2007

Firman Witoelar, World Bank Group

This paper investigates the patterns of home leaving and migration among young adults in Indonesia, using data from four waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey, IFLS1(1993), IFLS2(1997), IFLS3(2000), and the new IFLS4(2007). Since IFLS2, the survey followed some members who left their original households, even when they moved outside the enumeration areas, and interviewed them in the new households ("split-off households"). The number of split-off households in IFLS2 was close to 900, in IFLS3 it was more than 2,600. In the new IFLS4 data, around 4,100 new split-off households were interviewed. The paper exploits the longitudinal nature of IFLS by looking at the patterns of home-leaving across survey waves to answer the following questions: how important are human capital, household background, and the level of development in the sending areas play in influencing individuals' decision to: i)co-reside with their parents, ii)move locally, iii)migrate (move outside of own sub-district).