The Narratives of Remittances among Indonesian Female Domestic Workers: The Levels of Empowerment and Capacity Building

Abstract

This paper discusses the issues of remittances that have often been associated with complex issues among the Female Domestic Workers (FDWs), their families and their communities. Although remittances can selectively relieve the poverty of the recipients and enable households’ and wider communities’ consumption and (perhaps) saving, it does not automatically empower them and/or build their capacity. For instance, FDWs can also create a remittance-dependent culture, particularly in relation to the myth of ‘uang panas’ (‘hot money’). Since FDWs started to go overseas in the early 1980s, this myth has become widespread and has become a factor pushing circular migration and the remittance-dependent culture, which itself generates the sense that the money earned is never enough and will go as quickly as it arrived. However, based on the data and employing ideas from several studies I would argue that the issue of ‘uang panas’ (‘hot money’) confirms that the quality and quantity of remittance utilisation does not meet several values of empowerment and capacity building at three different levels – the personal, the interpersonal and the collective. In addition, this paper is questioning whether though remittances FDWs have gained empowerment in the sense of achieving total control of, and responsibility for, or still generated a traditional, patriarchal power.