| Abstract |
Malaysia is both a country of origin and destination for migration especially among the labour migrants both documented and undocumented. According to The World Bank's Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, the stock of immigrants in Malaysia is estimated at 2.4 million as at 2010 and the top source countries include Indonesia, Philippines, China, Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Generally, Malaysia is the major destination country for Indonesian migrants because of its geographical, cultural, and religous proximity to Indonesia.
The objective of this study is to investigate remittance behaviour among Indonesian migrants including the decision to remit and use of informal methods of transferring remittance. The data used was obtained from the Study of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Tawau, Sabah conducted by the National Population and Family Development Board Malaysia in 2010. Three different sets of questionnaire-based survey were conducted on both migrants and non-migrants, namely 896 Indonesian migrant workers, 37 employers who hired the Indonesian migrant workers, and 787 locals in Sabah. Both descriptive and multivariate analyses have been applied in order to study the remittance behaviour of the migrants. At the initial stage, the descriptive analysis explained the percentage of migrants who send remittance and migrants who use informal channels according to their characteristics. Then, logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the factors that influence migrants' decision to send remittance and the use of informal methods of transferring remittance. The results of this study showed that age, monthly income, number of children residing in Indonesia, having own house in Indonesia and sending goods to Indonesia are the main factors contributing to the migrants' decision to remit. It was found that the likelihood to remit among migrants increased with age, income and number of children residing in Indonesia. Those who own house in their origin country and sending goods to the country are more likely to remit. In the analysis of methods of transferring remittance, it was found that birth place, number of children residing in Indonesia and the total amount of money remitted have significant relationship with the use of informal channels. The likelihood of using informal channels is higher among migrants from Sulawesi as compared to the other parts of Indonesia. As the number of children residing in Indonesia and amount of money remitted increased, the likelihood of using informal channels had decreased. |
