Page 122 - IJPS-11-6

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Internal migration in Indonesia: Remapping

trajectories

Agus Joko Pitoyo * , Sukamdi Sukamdi 1,2 , Muhammad Arif Fahrudin
1,2
Alfana 1 , and Nanang Widaryoko 3
1 Department of Enviromental Geography, Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada,
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2 Center for Population and Policy Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
3 Population Studies, The Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Most conventional perspectives depict internal migration as a straightforward
process, starting in rural areas and culminating in urban centers. This study, utilizing
data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), aims to explore alternative
migration patterns in Indonesia beyond the traditional rural–urban migration.
Analyzing five waves of IFLS data, this research employed sequence analysis and
multinomial logistic regression, revealing a nuanced picture of internal migration
in Indonesia. The results reveal that, contrary to the one-step rural-urban migration
narrative, individuals in Indonesia often undergo multiple rural or urban migrations,
*Corresponding author:
Agus Joko Pitoyo influenced by factors such as gender, education, age, and migration motives. These
(aguspit@ugm.ac.id) findings underscore the complexity of internal migration patterns in Indonesia,
challenging the conventional rural–urban migration model.
Citation: Pitoyo AJ, Sukamdi
S, Alfana MAF, Widaryoko N.
(2025). Internal migration in
Indonesia: Remapping trajectories. Keywords: Migration; Trajectory; Rural-urban migration; Contemporary
International Journal of Population
Studies. 11(6): 116-129.
https://doi.org/10.36922/
IJPS025190084 1. Introduction
Received: May 6, 2025
Internal migration has long been integral to Indonesia’s development (Pitoyo, 2018),
1st revised: July 7, 2025 reflecting the nation’s strong nomadic culture (Tirtosudarmo, 2009). Despite its
2nd revised: July 28, 2025 importance, ironically, internal migration in Indonesia tends to receive less attention
Accepted: August 11, 2025 (Randolph & Naik, 2017), in contrast to fertility and mortality, which are more widely
studied (Muhidin, 2014). This neglect is particularly striking, given Indonesia’s vast
Published online: August 25, 2025 geographic and demographic complexity, a nation consisting of over 17,500 islands,
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s). home to more than 271 million people (BPS, 2023), and characterized by deep ethnic
This is an Open-Access article heterogeneity (Ananta et al., 2023).
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Spatial inequality further defines this context. Java, occupying only 7% of the land,
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, hosts more than half the population (BPS, 2023) and anchors the growth of Jakarta
provided the original work is and other major urban centers. Unsurprisingly, these urban centers have become
properly cited. powerful magnets for internal migrants originating from across the archipelago. This
Publisher’s Note: AccScience pattern has reinforced a dominant narrative: internal migration in Indonesia is typically
Publishing remains neutral with conceptualized as a unidirectional movement from peripheral rural regions to urban
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional cores (Randolph & Naik, 2017). Cattaneo and Robinson (2020) did note that internal
affiliations. migration, described as movement that starts in rural areas and ends in urban areas,

Volume 11 Issue 6 (2025) 116 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJPS025190084