It is routine for the Jakarta local government after Idul Fitri to launch a massive raid operation to prevent unskilled migrants from entering Jakarta. But the flows of migrants to Jakarta after Idul Fitri, and during the whole year, continues. Millions of people across the country dream of settling in Jakarta despite knowing they have little chance of survival. But they have little choice.

The increasing trend of urbanization will continue. By the end of year 2008, half of the world's population will be living in cities for the first time in history. This process of urbanization will accelerate in coming decades, especially in developing countries like Indonesia.

The lack of job and economic opportunities in rural areas justifies migration to the cities as a survival strategy. It is a rational choice made by villagers because cities generally have more jobs to offer.

How should the central government and the Jakarta administration anticipate the growing trend of urbanization? Is a repressive approach sufficient or should we think about other methods?

The economical and ecological limitations of the city to absorb a greater population are the rationale behind the repressive approach according to the Jakarta administration. Furthermore, the Jakarta administration assumes that urbanization will increase the number of urban poor, the level of unemployment and the level of underemployment in the city. The administration also believes that urbanization will enlarge slum areas and squatter communities, and will increase crime in Jakarta.

Due to limited access to education, many unskilled workers from rural areas who migrate to Jakarta will end up staying in the slum areas and working in the formal sector.

It impossible to reduce urbanization through the repressive approach when there are insufficient job opportunities in the villages.

It is incorrect to assume that people living in slum areas and working in the informal sector do not increase the city's revenue. Many researchers indicate the significant contribution of people working in informal sector to the city revenue, as was indicated by a study conducted by Institute for Economic and Social Rights in Jakarta.

This study showed that in 2007 street vendors in Jakarta spent Rp. 279.8 billion in legal and illegal retributions. This case is not unique. We can find similar cases in many other cities in Asia. Other research maintains that many urban workers and slum dwellers are actually working to accumulate significant amounts of money and capital in the cities, wishing to return to their villages once they have enough to survive there. If the local governments and private sectors can create more jobs and economic opportunities outside the cities, the process of de-urbanization can be facilitated.

While waiting for the urban workers and slum dwellers to earn and save money in the hope that the governments and private sectors create job opportunities in many districts outside Jakarta and other big cities in Java, it is important for the government of Jakarta to manage the city into a more inclusive city.

Over the last two decades, there has been a growing body of literatures arguing that many cities in Asia, including Jakarta, are becoming exclusive cities in which urban citizens are more and more polarized into enclaves of the very rich and the very poor.

On one hand, the rich and the middle class in big cities like Jakarta generally have better and cheaper access to public services and infrastructures in their exclusive housing estates.

On the other hand, the urban poor are packed into slum areas and squatter communities that are overcrowded, dilapidated and lack access to basic sanitation, clean water, solid waste management, reliable public transport and other public services. Ironically, the poor frequently pay more than the rich for these inadequate services.

By increasing the urban poor's access to the above basic facilities, a city like Jakarta can be a more humane and can become an inclusive city. Moreover, merely applying a repressive approach to prevent people from rural areas migrating to the cities will be ineffective. It denies people's basic human rights to move and migrate freely in search of more decent jobs and lives, basic rights protected by our Constitution.

The writer is a lecture at the University of Hasanuddin, Makassar, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

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