Engaging diasporas as development partners for indonesia: recommendations for policy makers

Abstract

The issue of Indonesian diaspora became increasingly strategic when in his speech in July 2019, President Joko Widodo mentioned about the importance of diasporas in Indonesia's human resources development process. Jokowi's speech indicates the significance concern of the government in supporting diaspora to contribute to the national development. This is in line with the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 which emphasizes the improvement quality and competitiveness of Indonesia’s human resources as its main objective. Unfortunately, the role of Indonesian Diaspora is often hampered at the level of implementation. This study provides an overview of Indonesian diaspora, particularly in relation to its potential, capacities, and challenges as well as providing recommendations and strategies for the policymakers in optimizing contribution of Indonesian Diaspora in national development. The study used qualitative methods supported by both primary and secondary data. The data were collected through documentation study, surveys, interviews, observations atseveral diaspora’s events, as well as from the focus group discussions sponsored by the Directorate of Public Diplomacy, MoFA of the Republic of Indonesia. This study focuses on the mapping of Indonesian diaspora’s potential, capacities, and challenges in 5 (five) strategic areas: investment, trade, sociocultural, tourism, as well as education and manpower. The study alsodiscovered both potential and challenging issues related to citizenship, the Diaspora Card, and the ‘Diaspora Connect’ digital application. The study revealed the high complexities in engaging diaspora as development partners for Indonesia, however it can be carried out through improvements in basic areas such as legislation, bureaucracy, and cross-ministerial or cross-sector coordination and collaboration.