Indonesian Migrant Workers' Contribution as Foreign Exchange Heroes Until Mid-2025
Indonesian migrant workers are recorded as contributing US$8.4 billion, or approximately Rp 136 trillion, to the country's foreign exchange through remittances or money transfers through the second quarter of 2025. As quoted by detik.com, according to data from the Indonesian Economic and Financial Statistics (SEKI) of Bank Indonesia (BI), the Minister for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (P2MI), Mukhtarudin, stated that in 2024, remittances reached US$15.7 billion, or approximately Rp 253.9 trillion, from 534,000 placement services. In 2025, 233,000 migrant workers were placed, with remittances totaling approximately Rp 136 trillion.
Mukhtarudin further stated that the remittance figure in 2024 contributed approximately 1% to Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This figure is still far behind neighboring countries like the Philippines, which reached Rp 600 trillion last year.
This situation is due to the Philippines' more structured migrant worker system. In fact, education about migrant workers is already included in the curriculum in elementary schools.
Meanwhile, Indonesia is only just beginning to improve its system. One step the government has taken is the establishment of People's Schools (SR), which will be integrated with migrant classes. Migrant Centers exist at six universities, and migrant classes are already being offered. The Unhas Migrant Center will soon be joined by the Pasim Bandung Migrant Center. The People's Schools will incorporate migrant class syllabuses into their curriculum to address the issue of increasing the capacity of Indonesian migrant workers.
PT Buana Safira Abadi repost.
