Unveiling the Determinants of High-Skilled Migration in Indonesia: A Gravity Model Approach

Abstract

High-skilled migration in Indonesia can potentially reduce regional inequality by driving economic growth in destinations. However, Indonesia's lax internal migration laws lead to highly skilled people migrating to developed provinces, increasing regional disparity. This study focuses on getting the overview of high-skilled migrants, forming a Public Facilities Accessibility Index (PFAI) using factor analysis PCA, and analyzing determinants of high-skilled migration flows with the ZINB model using a gravity model approach. The findings show that the phenomenon of interprovincial high-skilled migration in Indonesia is "Java Centric." Most highly skilled migrants are aged 21–35 years. Economic reasons are the main reason for moving. Provinces of Java Island have better public facilities than the others. High-skilled population size in origin and destination, geographic distance, urban unemployment rate in destination, worker’s wage in origin and destination, proportion of agricultural workers in origin, migrant stock, and PFAI in origin influence the flow of Indonesian high-skilled migration. The policy implications of these findings include maximizing the rural agricultural sector, raising labor wages, expanding access to public facilities, and creating job opportunities to either retain highly skilled individuals in the underdeveloped province or draw in highly skilled migrants to achieve regional equality.

Keywords

• High-skilled migration
• Gravity model
• ZINB
• Public facilities accessibility index
• Interregional inequality