Determinants of Job Seekers’ Decision for Migration; A Study in Big Cities in Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the influence of pull and push factors of job seekers to migrate to cities classified as big cities in Indonesia. The research variables consisted of economic infrastructure, employment opportunities, security levels, and differences in wage levels as pull factors. Meanwhile, the variables of gender, physical condition of the area, parents occupation, migration culture, work opportunities in the place of origin served as push factors. The destination cities of migration were cities with the classification of big cities in Indonesia, which included Medan, Jakarta and Surabaya. The study population was prospective job seekers from the city of Padang, presented by students of Padang State University and Andalas University in their last semester (semester eight). Samples of each University were 4 faculties, namely, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty Science and Mathematic.To determine the student sample size is based on a purposive sampling technique by assigning as many as 120 people in each faculty so that a total sample of 960 people, that is, around 460 respondents or 320 people for each migration destination cityparticipated in answering the questionnaires. The analytical technique followed the Logistic Regression Model. The research results showthat (a) economic infrastructure, level of security and comfort, gender, and parents occupations were factors that influenced the decision of job seekers to emigrate from Padang City to Surabaya City; (b) employment opportunities, relative wage levels, physical condition of the area of origin are factors that influenced the tendency of job seekers to emigrate from Padang City to Medan City; (c) while the physical condition of the place of origin, parental education, migration culture and employment opportunities in the area of origin were factors that influenced the tendency of job seekers to emigrate to Jakarta. Furthermore, the cities of Jakarta and Surabaya tended to have relatively strong pull and push factors for prospective jobseekers to migrate while Medan has only relatively strong pull factors compared to the push factors.