Return migration of Indonesian nurses from Japan: Where should they go?

Abstract

Introduction: Indonesia has a vast resource of nursing workforce for supplying the world demand. Nationally, there is growing concern at the current flows of nurse migration, particularly from Indonesia to Japan. Indonesia Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) has opened the gate for movement of natural persons, not exempted of nurses. Through this program,  the flow of skilled migrants from Indonesia to Japan has been facilitated by government of both countries. Furthermore, advanced health care facility and aging society in Japan has demanded more foreign nurses which are lead to nursing migration. This paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities specifically talking about the issue of return.

Method: Mixed method was employed, in the first quantitative section, data was collected by questionnaire. In the qualitative section, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were analysed with qualitative thematic content analysis. Data were obtained from twenty nurses, self reporting questionnaire and five nurses participated voluntarily in interview section.

Result: The results showed that 18 out of 20 skilled migrants were unemployed and sought a new job. Meanwhile, two returnee continue studying to a higher degree. Evidence from the interviews revealed that it seems it is very challenging for them to live in a home country and struggle with a real life. They were seeking vacancies and looking for the best one which is matched with their qualification.

Conclusion: Return migration would be very challenging and create difficulty for returning nurses to look for a new position and enhance their career. Facilitating return migration through specific program should be built. Making return attractive can increase the transfer of knowledge within a country and lessen the negative impact of brain drain.