The diversity of the Indonesian population in the homeland is reproduced by Indonesian migrants26 in Wongok-Dong. Table 2 is comprised of several characteristics of my
informants. As we can see, there are differences amongst Indonesian migrants in terms of regional origin, ethnicity, language usage and religion. Even though Javanese is the biggest ethnic group amongst Indonesian migrants, there are other groups such as Sundanese, Makassarnese, Sasak and so forth in Wongok-Dong; various local languages are spoken by Indonesian migrants and there are just as many diverse religious affiliations amongst the Indonesian migrants in Wongok-Dong. Indonesian Muslims established their masjid (mosque) called Sirothol Mustaqim, which enables them to practice Indonesian Islamic beliefs, while the Antioch International Community27 is the Christian church for
Indonesian migrants in Wongok-Dong.
26 Although there are Indonesian marriage migrants, most Indonesian immigrants are unskilled workers
who have an E-9 visa or undocumented workers who have lost their visa status in Wongok-Dong. Foreign immigrants who hold E-9 visa under the EPS can stay a maximum of 4 years and 10 months as a migrant worker. Their workplaces should be 3D job positions such as primary, manufacturing, construction and fishery industries. Undocumented workers previously had E-9 status or emigrated under the ITS and overstayed. I will explain why people become undocumented workers in Chapter 7.
27
Even though there are Indonesian Christians from Sumatra and Central Java in this church, most of its members are from Manado (North Sumatra). For this reason, this church has the characteristics of a hometown community for people from Manado.
Table 2. Selected Indonesian migrants’ characteristics in Wongok-Dong28
Region Hometown Hometown
community
Hometown Language
Ethnicity Religion
A Central Java Kendal Kendal Javanese Javanese Islam
B Central Java Seragen Seragen Javanese Javanese Islam
C East Java Blitar Blitar Javanese Javanese Islam
D East Java Kediri Joyo boyo Javanese Javanese Islam
E West Java Bandung Parayangan Sundanese Sundanese Islam
F Sulawesi Gorontalo None Gorontalonese Gorontalonese Islam
G Sulawesi Makassar Kosmis Makassarness Makassarness Islam
H Sulawesi Manado AIC Minahasa
Melayu
Minahasa Christian
I West
Nusa Tenggara
Lombok Galok Sasak Sasak Islam
J West
Nusa Tenggara
Lombok None Sasak Sasak Islam
K West
Nusa Tenggara
Bima Gabim Bima Bima Islam
L Sumatra Lampung None Islam
M Sumatra Palembang KBS Islam
On the basis of social heterogeneity within the Indonesian migrant group in Wongok-Dong, Indonesian migrants established their respective paguyuban, which consists of people who have similar social backgrounds. Indonesian migrants’ lives revolve around their paguyuban in Wongok-Dong. At the time of my research I was aware of nineteen
paguyubans29(see table 3).
28 Source: my own
Table 3. Indonesian hometown communities in Ansan
Region Name of Community
East Java Blitar PETA
Ponorogo PONOROGO
Banyuwangi IKABA
Kediri JOYO BOYO
Trenggalek PUTRA TUNGGAL
Malang AREMA
Central Java Pati PATINSAN
Cilacap ORBOS
Purwodadi PURWODADI
Sragen SRAGEN
Kendal BAHUREKSO
Brebes KOMBES
West Java Bandung PARAHYANGAN
Serang BADUI
Cirebon, Indramayu CIBERS
Lombok Lombok GALOK
Sumatra Palembang KBS
Bima Bima GABIM
Sulawesi Sulawesi KOSMIS
Indonesian migrants usually participate in activities with members of their paguyuban. However, on occasions they also participate in gatherings that extend beyond the boundaries of their paguyuban based on something in common with other Indonesians (See Table 2). For example, Indonesian migrants used to participate in demonstrations against the crackdowns on illegal migrants in Korea. Moreover, Muslim Indonesian migrants have established and take part in religious events such as Tabliah Akbar (the great sermon) and
named ‘One Indonesia day’ as an Indonesian in Wongok-Dong. Hence, Indonesian migrants have a multilayered identity and can choose their position in Wongok-Dong depending on the circumstances.
In short, Indonesian migrants in Wongok-Dong reproduce the characteristics of Indonesians in the homeland. On the one hand, Indonesian migrants formally reveal the diversity of the Indonesian population by establishing their paguyuban in Wongok-Dong. On the other hand, Indonesian migrants have collective behaviours beyond their hometown membership in Wongok-Dong. In this regard, they arrange each identity, such a regional origin, ethnicity, use of language, religious belief, Indonesian and foreign migrant, by responding to various circumstances in Wongok-Dong.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter I have provided contextual structures to enable further discussions in this thesis. More specifically, I have looked at the characteristics of Korea as a perceivably homogeneous country, various efforts to build a multicultural community in Wongok- Dong and the heterogeneity of the Indonesian migrant group.
Korean society has strengthened its ethnic nationalism throughout history. Against this background, Korea imported foreign migrant workers to solve labour shortages through establishing guest worker programmes. However, the arrival of foreigners became challenging for Korean society. Koreans feared that the increased presence of foreign migrant workers would progressively decrease the perceived homogeneity of Korean society. Therefore, foreign migrant workers are treated as temporary workers and not as people for integration under the Korean government policies. In addition, foreign migrants are economically and socio-culturally excluded in Korea.
Even though Korean society takes a negative view of integrating foreign migrants into society, there are many efforts to overcome this in Wongok-Dong. After the influx of numerous foreign migrants into Wongok-Dong, the town became the biggest foreign migrants’ area in Korea and there have been various activities aimed at building a ‘Borderless Village’. However, government interventions have caused the disappearance of spontaneous collective behaviours amongst people in Wongok-Dong. As a result, people in Wongok-Dong have difficulty building social relationships beyond their national group (Oh 2010, 2011; Park, 2011).
Although there are difficulties in building intercultural connections beyond nationality in Wongok-Dong, the Indonesian migrant group as a heterogeneous group has the possibility to make intercultural connections in the special context of Wongok-Dong. While the Indonesian migrants show their diversity by building paguyubans, they also transcend these primordial bonds to practice joint behaviours in Wongok-Dong.
On the basis of the contextual structures of Korea and Wongok-Dong, I suggest that investigation of the Indonesian migrant groups is meaningful in evaluating integration between people with different social backgrounds. The chief characteristic of the Indonesian migrant group can be defined as its social heterogeneity. Indonesian migrants are exposed to totally different environments in Korea compared to their homeland. As a result, each Indonesian migrant displays different patterns of interactions with Indonesians who have different social backgrounds through encountering numerous situations in Korea.