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Diaspora balks at RI employment prospects
There is no place like home for many in the Indonesian diaspora
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span>There is no place like home for many in the Indonesian diaspora. But their dreams of returning to the archipelago and earning a living remain just that — dreams — as quality employment in their specialized fields is not yet available at home.
Adidarma Sepang, an Indonesian fellow actuary who works for insurance company Phoenix Group in the United Kingdom, thinks fondly about returning to Indonesia.
"I want to go home because, after all, Indonesia is my home. Every time I go back to Indonesia, I get this happy feeling speaking Indonesian and seeing familiar people," said Adidarma in an email to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
“The quality of life in the UK, however, is better than in Indonesia because here I am able to have a better work-life balance, a better employee benefit package and access to a more established insurance industry that allows me to broaden my exposure.”
The actuarial profession in Indonesia has gained purchase over the last few years, but it is currently limited to the insurance industry only, according to Adidarma.
“In more developed countries, however, the actuarial profession can be useful in broader areas. There is a possibility that [the situation in Indonesia] will change in the next couple of years,” he added.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called on the Indonesian diaspora to help develop the country in his first speech since re-election. He asked them to return home and work for the nation.
According to the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, there were about 3 million people in the Indonesian diaspora in 2013.
The Global Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN Global) estimates that there are currently between 6 and 8 million people in the Indonesian diaspora holding Indonesian citizenship, indicating that an increasing number of citizens have chosen to live abroad.
Homegrown technology decacorn Gojek’s vice president of data science Syafri Bahar has also called on Indonesians overseas to return to the country. He said there was no better time than the present to contribute thanks to the nation’s burgeoning digital economy.
Syafri, who returned to Indonesia last year to lead Gojek’s data team — a highly valued field in technology start-ups — had spent 10 years in the Netherlands as he considered Indonesia lacking in job opportunities.
As a so-called quant, or quantitative analyst, Syafri said there were limited openings – if any at all – for the type of work he aspired to take on a decade ago. Today, most problem-solving and performance-maximizing efforts at technology start-ups are the responsibility of data scientists.
“I challenge the entire diaspora to come home if you want to make an impact,” Syafri said during a discussion organized by the Post in collaboration with Gojek in Jakarta on Dec. 5.
“There are so many structural inefficiencies in Indonesia, and by taking these out we could create big opportunities for the economy,” he said. “As the digital technology movement enables new kind of jobs in Indonesia, it will accommodate the diaspora with many work opportunities and problems to be solved.”
Outside of the digital and technology sectors, the digital economy has also created new jobs that did not exist years ago, according to a McKinsey & Company report titled Automation and the Future of Work in Indonesia. Conventional sectors like health care, manufacturing, consumer goods and travel also require new types of skills.
By 2030, there will be 10 million jobs in new occupations that do not exist today according to the report. A projected 27 to 40 million new jobs will be created over the same period if Indonesians learn new skills, while about 23 million jobs could be replaced by automation.
IDN Global founder Dino Patti Djalal said the presence of start-ups could help attract the Indonesian diaspora, adding that the diaspora could “fill the gap” of the lack of qualified talent in Indonesia.
“The talent war is extraordinary, and, therefore, we need to provide [the Indonesian diaspora] with attractive remunerations and creative incentives because we cannot rely only on red and white nationalism,” Dino told the Post, referring to the colors of the Indonesian national flag.
The Malaysian government, he said, had provided several incentives for Malaysians living abroad. It allowed them to bring their vehicles to the country without having to pay tax if they returned to work, for example.
“We should also think about smart incentives like these to bring them back,” Dino said.
