How Ideas Migrate: Reflections from an International Comparative Project

How Ideas Migrate: Reflections from an International Comparative

Project.

Marilyn PORTER

Kristi POERWANDARI

Abstract

This paper takes a different approach to the topic of

‘migration,’ attempting to explain how ideas migrate and how

people’s ideas change as they themselves move either

geographically or in terms of their family position. We look

first at the experience of migration for women in Indonesia and

Newfoundland. We also pay attention to how ideas change as women

age and join a different generation. We then look at how our own

ideas change as a result of working with colleagues from a

different cultural background, especially in the context of

comparative studies of women’s lives. In our conclusion we look

at what this approach to the ‘migration of ideas’ tells us about

the consequences for women’s situations

1

Key Words: migration, ideas, Indonesia, feminism,

Introduction

We began this paper with a hunch, a question and an ambitious

program. Our project was not initially targeted at migration

issues.1 It was only as we began to analyze the data that we saw

how much ‘movement’ of various kinds impacted on our

participants. In particular, we became aware that physical

migration (both domestic and international) was only one aspect

of the topic. We realized that the ‘migration of ideas’ – how

ideas move around the world and how people come to adopt new

ideas and ways of life – was rarely considered in discussions on

the migration of people. Could we explore this aspect of the

topic using our own data? Could we contribute to the work done on

migration and mobility issues? Could we use our own comparative

backgrounds and data to enrich other comparative approaches to

such topics?

At the outset, we were mostly concerned with how women could

escape repressive situations and ideas that limited their

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choices, and our unspoken assumption was that migration (domestic

or international) might provide a wider range of ideas and

choices. In other words, our initial aim was to discover how

women might get access to more progressive ideas and thus free

themselves from social constraints. However, in the period we

were preparing this paper, we became more concerned with the

spread of repressive ideas, especially those stemming out of the

adoption of more fundamentalist interpretations of religion. In

particular, we were concerned with the spread of regulations in

Indonesia that directly and indirectly threatened women’s

freedom. Up to July 2006, noted activist, Siti Musdah Mulia

(cited in The Jakarta Post, 15 May 2007), noted 56 regional

regulations in various forms that marginalized women. These

include ‘qanun’ (Islamic law) as well as specific decisions made

by regional heads, all of which were oriented towards more strict

interpretations of Islamic law. Directly or indirectly, they

regulate women’s conduct. At the same time, we have been

concerned to address the problem of racism and racist ideas,

especially regarding the treatment of immigrants in their host

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countries. With all these ideas and unanswered questions in mind

we turned to our data to see if it was possible to throw any

light on where ideas come from, how we can encourage an openness

and a valuing of diversity and how we can deter the development

of ideas that impose rigid values and restrict diversity and

respect for all people.

The scale of migration of peoples around the world has never

been greater. People migrate within and across national borders,

from the country to the cities, fleeing wars and civil

disturbances, in search of jobs or advancement, education, in

search of freedom, to join family members, bringing their wealth

with them or empty handed, temporally or permanently, in

desperation and in hope, (Jandl, 2007; Toro-Morn and Alicea,

2004; Schuerkens, 2005; Portes, 1997). All these ‘migrants’ must

make profound adjustments if they are to survive the experience

and create new lives. In ‘receiving countries’ such as Canada, a

great deal of thought and talk has gone into creating structures

and policies in order to accommodate newcomers from different

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cultures. Often, this is as basic as providing English language

training or validating professional qualifications from another

country. However, immigrants still find themselves badly equipped

in labor market and with their skills and experience denied,

(Porter and Jaya, 2005; Sooknanan, 2000). In schools and

religious institutions, some Canadians try to find ways to bring

cultures together and build mutual respect. They are not always

successful. Immigrant scholars, such as Bannerji, testify to the

depths of racism and discrimination that still exist in Canada

(Bannerji, 2000; Thobani, 2000; Subramanian, 2006). The origins

of racism and other forms of intolerance and discrimination are

many and various, but if we are to move towards more open and

accepting societies, we have to discover these and address the

problems at their roots, i.e., in the ideas that people hold

about ‘others’ and how new experiences change people’s ideas.

Throughout history, people have taken ideas to and from

across the world. Wherever people of a different background have

met, especially on equal terms, they have compared notes and, as

a result, have often changed their view of the world or their

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ways of doing things. When we talk about ‘migration’ we often

forget how ideas also migrate -- often invisibly, but with great

effect. And when we talk about ideas and how they travel, we do

not call it ‘migration.’ But that is exactly what it is.

‘Migration of ideas’ opens up a vast field of study -- how Indian

and Arabic knowledge reached Medieval Europe; how Christianity,

hand-in-hand with colonization, spread across the globe; how

Marxism spread and adapted to different conditions; how technical

innovations and scientific discoveries spread and taken up in

different contexts; how conquerers force their views and

practices on the conquered; more recently how global capitalism

and ‘McDonaldism’ has resulted in a depressing homogeneity around

the world and so on. But recently, in what in the West is called

‘the post 9/11 world’, we have also seen a growth in

polarization, especially in the context of the so-called ‘war on

terror.’ In many parts of the world, including Canada, we have

seen one religion, Islam, and its adherents, demonized. In other

parts of the world, including Indonesia, we have seen a

corresponding rise in resistance and intolerance. In western

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countries such as Canada, there has been a radicalization,

especially among disaffected first or second generation immigrant

youth, thus connecting issues of migration of people with the

migration of ideas.

However, in this paper we will be more limited. We will try

to link what we know about how women experience migration

(Donatoet al., 2006; Canadian Woman Studies, 2003; Bella, 2002)

and try to indicate ways in which we think that the migration of

people and the migration of ideas (especially positive ideas)

might be linked. We will try to present some data which may help

to explain how the migration of people, especially women, and the

migration of ideas interacts. We begin by looking briefly at what

migration actually means for the women who move; why do they move

and what consequences does it have for them and their families?

At this point, we think that people who migrate are usually more

open to new ideas (although not always), but there is no

mechanism for passing the ideas back to the communities they came

from, and very little motivation to do so. In this context, Leila

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Ahmed’s observation that, in the context of ancient Mesopotamia

“[T]he spread of reductive and controlling practices and

misogynist ideas at this time and this region is striking. And it

is also striking that attitudes that apparently recognized

women’s humanity as well as their biological capacity – attitudes

that had also existed in this region….- conversely did not spread

and were not copied and exchanged from one culture to another”

(Ahmed, 1992:18). Our data does not allow us to explore how

immigrants absorb the host culture or under what circumstances

the host culture becomes open to new influences, although this

has been explored in other studies. (Schuerkens, 2005; Ralston,

1996;). In Canada, the Metropolis Project

(http://canada.metropolis.net/index_e.html) provides a constant

stream of research papers and projects on the problems

surrounding immigration and settlement (e.g. Guo, 2006; McLaren,

2006; Buzzelli and New bold, 2006). However, there has been

little research effort made to understand the effect of return

migration on home communities, either domestic or international

(but see Newbold, 2007; Sinclair, 2007; Skrentny et al, 2007).

8

We then we explore a few examples from our data to illustrate how

ideas are transmitted from generation to generation as well as

how new knowledge enters the family circle. We end with a short

discussion about our own relationship as colleagues trying to

build partnerships across cultural and institutional differences

and what factors have led us to exchange ideas.

The project on which this paper is based, “Women’s

Experience of Their Reproductive Lives: An International

Comparative Project,” was carried out by three teams of

researchers based at Memorial University in Canada, the Pakistan

Journal of Women’s Studies, and the Graduate Program in Women's

Studies at the University of Indonesia. Each team carried out in-

depth life story interviews with up to three generations of women

in about ten families. In Newfoundland, Canada, we collected 53

interviews in 23 families; in Pakistan we collected 48 interviews

in 17 families and in Indonesia we collected 27 interviews in 10

families. In this paper we compare data from the Canadian and

Indonesian data only although the Pakistan data is part of the

broader project. The main focus of the project was on women’s

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reproductive health lives, which we interpreted in the broadest

sense, looking particularly at the way in which culture, family

and religion impacted women’s experience of reproducing

themselves and their families. The teams agreed broad areas of

topics and developed a methodology of collecting life story

material, based on allowing each woman to ‘tell her story’ as

naturally as possible (DeVault, 1990, Bertaux and Delacroix,

2000; Chamberlayne et al., 2000). All interviews were tape-

recorded and then transcribed and, if necessary, translated. The

teams remained in close communication throughout the data

collection, but each one had autonomy within the agreed

frameworks of theory and methodology. Each team selected about

ten families with three generations of women whom they judged to

be ‘broadly representative’ of the class, religious, cultural and

economic diversity of their country. While we decided broadly

what topics we needed to collect data on, each team was free to

modify the questions according to the cultural context. All the

researchers were committed to keeping the interviews as open and

flexible as possible, stressing the continuity of women’s

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experience. While most of the Canadian interviews were single

interviews, the Pakistan and Indonesian teams were more

successful in carrying out multiple interviews with women, and

often stayed with the families for some days. We used a

qualitative analysis tool (NVivo7) to help us handle the vast

amounts of data that we generated. This highly sophisticated

analysis tool enabled us first of all to search the data for

cross references between the data sets, and then to develop

inductive theories based on the data to enable us to understand

the way in which women in different cultures understood their

experience (Richards, 2007).

1 The larger project from which the data presented here is drawn

is entitled Women’s Experience of Reproductive Health in the Family: A

Comparative Life Story Project funded by IDRC and SSHRC. There are three

teams, based in Newfoundland, Canada; Karachi, Pakistan; and

Jakarta, Indonesia. Project leader: Marilyn Porter. Members of

the Newfoundland team: Phyllis Artiss, Natalie Beausoleil, Diana

Gustafson. Pakistan team: Tahera Aftab (country leader), Zareen

Ilyas, Shakila Rehman. Indonesian team: Anita Rahman (country

leader), Tita Marlita, Kristi Poerwandari. The contents of this

paper are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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A number of publications have already resulted from the

project. To date, these have mostly been analyses of specific

country data ( e.g. Porter and Gustafson, forthcoming; Aftab,

2007), but the real value of an international collaborative

project like this lies in the richness of comparative analysis.

This article represents two team members from different countries

attempting to think about each other’s data, in this case a very

small section of the data, and to learn from the comparison. The

two authors, whom the reader will meet later in the paper, have

worked together and collaboratively on a number of projects. We

have often found that while our situations are in contrast, our

ideas mesh closely. Marilyn is older (just at retirement age)

while Kristi is in her 40s. Marilyn has children (and

grandchildren), while Kristi is unmarried but part of a large

family. Marilyn was born in the UK but moved to Canada in the

early 1980s; Kristi was born and remains in Jakarta. We both hold

positions in universities (Memorial University and the University

of Indonesia). Marilyn has a background in history and sociology,

12

Kristi in Psychology and Philosophy. We both work largely in

Women's Studies. We will come back to how important these

differences and similarities are later in the paper.

Migration of ideas across space.

As the women in our study recounted their reproductive lives,

they included the geographical moves they had made in their

accounts. In this section we will summarize the material from

Newfoundland and from Indonesia, focusing especially on the

factors that influence women to move and the consequences it has

for them.

The experience in Newfoundland

One of the key social and economic issues in Newfoundland is that

of out-migration and a consequent dwindling of population,

especially in the most economically productive age groups. There

is a long history of both permanent and seasonal out-migration,

but it has intensified since the collapse of cod fishery in the

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1990s, and changed with more permanent out-migration, especially

of young families. With few other employment opportunities, this

shrinkage in a particular industry had far reaching consequences.

In contrast with most other parts of the world and every other

Canadian province, the population of Newfoundland and Labrador is

actually dropping, from 568,474 in 1991 to 551,792 in 1996 to

516,000 in 2006 (Statistics Canada:

http://www40.statcan.ca/101/cst01/demo02.htm?sdi=population2).

Without new forms of employment and the consequent provision of

services, most Newfoundland communities are looking at a grim

future. We were, therefore, surprised that out-migration (or the

pressure to migrate) did not feature more prominently in the

accounts of our participants. Most of the participants in the

study had moved several times in their lives. These moves tended

to be from one Newfoundland community to another, sometimes to

the capital (St John’s). Most had also spent periods outside the

province (although within Canada). Reasons for these moves

centered on better opportunities for work or education, or better

access to services. Often families or individuals moved to join

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other family members. Women, of course, often moved to live in

their husbands’ communities or moved with their husbands when

work took them elsewhere. Bella (2002) describes out-migration to

other part of Canada as ‘chain migration’ with Newfoundlanders

moving to the same areas as other Newfoundlanders, whether or not

they were related. These groups of Newfoundlanders constituted

distinct cultural groups, and kept alive both the culture and the

connections with the province and community they came from. The

new communities, of course, also insulated the migrants from new

ideas or practices, as we find with other immigrant groups

(Schuerkens, 2005) As we were carrying out the project in

Newfoundland, we also encountered women who had moved back to

Newfoundland from other parts of Canada. Some participants took

advantage of retirement to ‘come home,’ and older women

especially were anxious to move closer to their grandchildren

(Bella, 2002; Sinclair, 2007; House, 1989).

Lillian provided an example of temporary out-migration for

training and work, with positive results when she returned,

15

as seen in the following:

Lillian: I did my nursing training and then I worked here

for awhile and then my boyfriend and I both went to

Toronto, he was moving on in his training and I got work

as a nurse in Toronto.

Marilyn: How long did you live in Toronto?

Lillian: I lived in Toronto for one year and then

Kingston, Ontario for two years.

Marilyn: How did you like it when you came back here?

Lillian: Oh I liked it, I liked it quite a lot. I came

back here to go to school, by that time I had decided that

I wanted to go back to school and he was moving to the US

to continue his training and I had just decided at that

point that the states wasn’t where I wanted to be so I came

back here and he went there because I wanted to go back to

school and I thought that would be easier to do here than

living up there. I would have been by myself living in

Ontario then, I had no real reason to stay there at that

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point.

Nicole is a young, single mother, with two sons who had

health problems. In her case, she sees out-migration as a

way out of her predicament:

Nicole: Well I did a program with the women and resource

based development. OTT, orientation trades technology.

Marilyn: Oh, yeah and you've got training in metal work as

well

Nicole: Yeah, love it. I love it.

Marilyn: So would you do that, if you got the chance?

Nicole: If I got the chance, in a heartbeat.

Marilyn: And what would it take to give you the chance?

Nicole: Money (laughter). Out of here. There's nothing

here.

Marilyn: So how could you manage that? When you say

money, if you got into a well paying job with welding,

could you?

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Nicole: No, I need money to go. You know, to get me out

of here to where the jobs are.

Marilyn: And where are they?

Nicole: Ontario, BC…

Marilyn: Ok, so you'd have to relocate?

On the other hand, Hazel, the daughter of a war bride2, still

remembers the trauma of her arrival in Newfoundland as a 12 year

old girl and the effect on her mother.

When I think about it and everything … there was all this red dirt, you know, everywhere you went, on the roads - fromthe ore naturally, everything was dirty and dusty and she cried to break her heart for months right and she was uprooted from all her family, brought over here to total strangers, it wasn’t easy right.....I left all my friends, you know and my family, our family isvery very very close, large family and that was devastating when I had to lose all them. I guess I was spoiled a littlebit too…they all doted on me, so I missed all that. There were just so many things you could do over there. Picnics, family things, outings but you couldn’t do any of that

2 The term ‘war bride’ refers to women, usually from the UK, who

married servicemen from other countries while they were stationed

in the UK during World War 2. The women whose marriages survived

the war, then immigrated to the countries of their husbands’

nationalities.

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really on Bell Island I mean where could you go? There was only one movie theatre I believe, that I can remember. …. And then again with dad’s family I had to get used to them. They didn’t know me, and they sort of, I got the feeling they sort of looked at us as outsiders….they didn’t know us.

The experience in Indonesia

Both permanent and temporary migration and return migration

expose women to new ideas about their behavior and values. In

most cases, women moving away from traditional communities find

their possibilities expanded. But they are also subject to new

dangers and new methods of exploitation, especially sexual

exploitation in the urban centers. Without family support, young

women like Nicole find that sexual liberation does not free them

from the control of men or the responsibility for children.

In some ways migration in Indonesia is very different. Migration

within the country, which we call urbanization is very popular.

The major trend is for people to move from rural-small-remote

villages to big cities. There are complex reasons for this,

including the low priority of the government to develop

agriculture, decrease in land available for agricultural work,,

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environmental degradation leading to difficulties in cultivating

the remaining land, and the very low earnings of farmers. So

people have moved to the cities for economic survival. The most

common scenario is for farmhands to leave the agricultural work

as seasonal workers and move to the closest city, where they take

up any unskilled work they can find. Men and women alike move to

cities and take up activities such as selling food and other

items, providing services (for example domestic chores, washing,

baby-sitting for women; and working as laborers in construction

or providing public transportation: becak, ojek, bajaj, for men). In

big cities it is now very common also to see beggars and street

people every where.

Transmigration was a government program, very popular in the

New Order Era (around the end of the 60s, 70s and early 80s

especially), in which people were moved from one densely

populated locality to other places.3 Mostly, they were sent from

Java Island (and some from Madura) to places that were deemed to

be large and empty enough, such as some parts of Sumatra,

Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and Papua. But there were also waves of

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movement from Sulawesi to Ambon and Papua, for example, for

people to find better living conditions. With the Asian monetary

crisis and the civil unrest that led to the downfall of the

Suharto regime, many parts of Indonesia experienced deeply

disturbing and violent communal-ethic conflicts in recent years

in places such as in Kalimantan and Maluku. Thousands of people

whose ancestors had migrated to Kalimantan and Ambon had lost

connection with their places of origin. When they were displaced

or fled the violence, they found they had no place in their so-

called mother land.

Indonesia is also well-known as ‘sending’ country for

migrant workers. They mostly go to other South-East Asia

countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei; to East Asia

such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea; and to the Middle

3 This is the opposite of policy of resettlement introduced by

Smallwood in Newfoundland in the 1960s, which forced people in

smaller and more remote settlements to relocate to larger

centres. (Matthews, 1976)

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East (for example, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the

Emirates). There are many problems especially related to the

human rights protection of migrant workers that is beyond the

scope of this paper.4 Suffice to say that many of these women

encounter new or at least different ideas about the treatment of

women, such as the more strict Islamic codes of the Arab states,

and often suffer as a consequence.

Official data underestimates the actual numbers of migrant

workers from Indonesia, since there are many who are

undocumented, and therefore not recorded. But even official data

showed that in 1999, there were more than a million Indonesian

migrant workers -- 1.049.627 -- working in foreign countries,

two-thirds of them women. But the actual number of Indonesian

migrant workers is, of course, much larger than this. In

September-October 2002 there was what came to be called a

‘Nunukan’ tragedy, when around 350.000 undocumented migrant 4 There are some NGOs working on the issue of protection and

advocacy of migrant workers, such as Solidaritas Perempuan

(Women’s Solidarity), Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (Indonesian

Migrant Workers Union), and Migrant Care.

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workers were deported from Sabah Malaysia to the Indonesian

frontier town of Nunukan, East Kalimantan. In Malaysia alone, in

2002 it was estimated that there were around 800,000 undocumented

migrant workers from Indonesia (Migrant Care;

http://buruhmigranberdaulat, downloaded September 13. 2006).

Like the Newfoundland data, the Indonesian data provides us

with information about the kinds of moves that women made and

their reasons for migration. But the Indonesian data throws up

more cases of individual women making substantial changes in

their situation by migrating away from their home communities.

Aminah, a middle aged woman, experienced migration in many

different ways. Her parents’ marriage had ended and Aminah as

well as her brothers and sisters were separated.

Aminah: I was born in Klaten (a small place in Central

Java). When I was a child, I was very miserable. And then

my father brought me to Sumatra. He was in military

service. I was there 12 years. Then my father re-married,

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and my mother wouldn’t let herself stay in the

relationship. So she brought us, five of us, to Java. We

didn’t get education. Then we were just spread around, one

lived with an uncle, one lived with another. I lived with

my uncle, my older [brother] lived with grandmother, and

another one lived with our aunt. And then my mother re-

married…. We were just very broken. Very broken every

where….

Aminah received a marriage proposal and married. Her husband left

her to go to Jakarta, but then went back to her and their two

daughters in a small village in Central Java. Her husband never

gave her money and also abused her badly:

Aminah: He gambled all the time, never gave me money.

Called me a prostitute and beat me all the time. One day

his younger brother asked me to give him (my husband)

money, since he would like to go, and didn’t have money. I

said, I don’t have money. You know what, all of them, my

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mother-in-law, his relatives, they all talked badly about

me. I could say nothing except cry.

Her husband went back to Jakarta, and Aminah decided to follow

him and then heard that he had been caught doing something

‘indecent’ with another woman. Apparently he had had an affair.

Aminah then moved to Jakarta with her first daughter, Nita, but

she had to make her own living. Walking door to door in slum

areas in Jakarta, she made her living as a vendor of gado-gado,

(a kind of meal from mixed vegetable with peanut sauce). She felt

liberated, because no one told her to do this and she had made

her own way without her own family or that of her husband, who

always told her to be patient with her husband.

Aminah: His relatives, all talked nonsense about me. They

said: how come, a wife that is brave enough to talk to her

husband like that. They said I was not faithful. They said

I had an affair…

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So Aminah felt that was ‘enough’ and in Jakarta she became even

brave enough to struggle for a divorce. Her husband was becoming

more abusive, since he did not want to let her go, but her small

community in Jakarta supported Aminah, to the point of defending

her when her husband tried to injure her.

Aminah: Some people said I was weird. How come, my husband

would like to go back to live with me, but I wouldn’t. I

just stayed silent. I was sure I couldn’t live with him

anymore.

Finally, she was able to divorce him and set herself free. She

felt more secure in Jakarta, with people who knew her case and

were willing to support and defend her from her ex-husband, who

sometimes still tried to assault her. In this case, the ‘new

ideas,’ especially regarding Aminah’s husband being free to abuse

her, initially worked against her, but the small community that

she had become part of in Jakarta demonstrated a new resistance

to male authority, providing her with support to live a different

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kind of life.

Nita, her daughter, became pregnant and so was married to an

unemployed man from Sumatra. She and her husband decided to move

to a small place in West Sumatra, where his parents lived. Nita

found that this move proved to be one to a ‘more limited life,’

as she had to adjust to the traditional way of living demanded of

women in this community. She did not feel comfortable, so she

asked her husband to return to Jakarta and currently they live in

Jakarta with her mother, Aminah.

A Comparative View

What does all this mean in terms of ‘migration of ideas.’ It is

surprisingly hard to discern specific changes in ideas as a

direct result of migration. Some of the younger Newfoundland

participants saw greater liberalism and freedom when they moved

away from their home communities, but just as many saw

difficulties in making a home in a new place. What is

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distinctive, although understudied, is the way in which

Newfoundland migrants used technology to keep in touch with their

families and communities back home. The telephone, especially

with new, cheap long distance rates has been crucial in this

process. Bella’s study found that migrants phoned home between

one and twenty times a month, sometimes talking for several hours

(Bella, 2002: 92). More recently, e-mail and internet based

communication have supplemented this communication. None of this

is true of most migrants in Indonesia, who do not have access to

such technology. Bella also describes the ways in which

Newfoundlanders in other parts of Canada preserved their memories

and cultural heritage. In this way, domestic migration in

Newfoundland has more in common with the ways in which

international migrants, such as Chinese or Italians preserve

their identity by creating ethnic enclaves (Ralston, 1996).

Intra-provincial migration, especially to the larger

centers and/or by women who move with their husbands to a new

workplace is seen as both necessary and natural. Temporary

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migration to other parts of Canada in search of either work or

education is seen as a generally positive adaptation with no

permanent consequences. Parents (and grandparents) recognized

that their children have to leave to find work and adjust their

lives accordingly. Up until very recently, such moves were seen

as temporary adaptations, which could be reversed if and when the

temporary migrants wanted to return. However, the recent increase

in permanent out-migration, especially of younger people from

rural communities, was seen both as a fact of life and

(increasingly) as a threat to the Newfoundland ‘way of life’

(Bella, 2002; Palmer and Sinclair, 1997; Sinclair et al., 1999).

While most of the new ideas and practices that the women

encountered when they moved were positive, or seen as positive –

such as the greater opportunities for work, more personal freedom

– they also had to adapt to new constraints. Violence in public

areas was much more prevalent in large urban centers and women

had to modify their ways to keep safe. For many migrants from

Newfoundland, it was their first experience of a multicultural

city. While this can be positive, it also provides a fertile

29

breeding ground for a racism and intolerance, quite alien to

their home culture.

The Indonesian data suggests that the consequence of

migration depended on the context. A move to the big metropolis

might free a woman from social constraints and open up new

possibilities, but a move to a smaller and more remote place

(especially to the husband’s family home) might restrict their

possibilities. One example of a woman from Banjarmasin

illustrates both the tensions and the role of the individual in

responding to new situations. This woman was pursuing her higher

education in Surabaya, and there she saw a more liberated way of

life: some of her friends were sexually active (before marriage),

one even got pregnant. But she did not follow their example and

instead she observed the traditional way, as she was socialized

by her parents to do. After completing her degree, she went back

to Banjarmasin and had her marriage arranged by the family.

While we have made some progress in understanding how

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migration was viewed and the kind of consequences it might have

for individual women and families, we have not found in this data

clear indications of how ideas might change as a result. Clearly,

as Newfoundlanders moved to larger centers, they got access to

new (and usually more liberal) ways of life. We know from other

studies that gay men and lesbians and other ‘minority’ groups

find that they can escape the discrimination of small communities

in the larger towns. There are cases of similar tendency in

Indonesia (Oetomo, 1996). However, we do not know what happens

when such migrants bring new ideas and practices back to their

home communities. We suspect that in Newfoundland (like the

Indonesian example from Banjarmasin documents) the returning

migrants are more concerned to fit back into their families and

are reluctant to challenge the mores of their home communities.

In other words, there is some evidence that migrants exposed to

new ideas and social practices will adopt them, but there is

little evidence that their families in the home communities will

also be exposed to them. Indeed, what little evidence there is

suggests that such ideas and practices remain ‘place specific.’

31

However, we should note that our study was focused on the

generations of women in particular families. The evidence we have

does not imply that migrating individuals are not influenced by

new ideas, but only that they do not seem to convey them to their

families, and in particular they do not ‘bring them home’ if and

when they return. We also need to recognize that those migrants

who are most changed by their experience are possibly the least

likely to return home. Many intellectuals and artists over the

years have testified to the stultifying effect of their home

communities and the sense of freedom they experienced when they

moved to the big city. The ones who returned, and those who kept

in closest touch with home were most attached to their original

community values.

Examples of migration of ideas across generations.

In this section we look at the evidence for another way for ideas

to migrate, i.e., across generations. It is obvious that ideas

and social practices do change from generation to generation,

32

although in more traditional societies conservative forces may

prevail. Both Indonesia and Newfoundland are traditional

societies, yet both have changed quite profoundly within the last

few generations. Part of this is due to technology and the

provision of services. Most Newfoundland communities did not have

road access until late in the 20th century. This was followed by

the provision of modern health services and education,

telephones, public transport (and availability of private

transport), radio, TV and now internet and so on. While

Newfoundlanders are substantially poorer than other Canadians,

they do now have access to all the accoutrements of modern life

in ways that our older participants found astonishing. With these

developments access to new ideas and challenges to traditional

ways of thinking have come as well. Television and the internet

in particular have exposed rural Newfoundlanders to the diversity

of human experience and limitless possibilities. Yet our

overwhelming impression is that especially in rural communities

there is a profound resistance to new ideas, especially those

concerned with marriage or sexuality. Older women tended to

33

express this more openly. Few of them would countenance

homosexuality as a valid sexual alternative; most remained

unshaken in their religious faith despite revelations of the

wrong doing of priests. Younger participants seemed to take for

granted that things change and that they would change with the

times. Certainly they would adopt the material improvements and

the standards they expect from government services are higher

than those of their parents. But apart from a slight loosening of

sexual mores, they, too, seemed resistant to any ideas they

identified as ‘new’. The exceptions were those participants who

had moved around a lot.

Let us explore some of these factors in the context of one

generational relationship. This was the “S” family in

Newfoundland, where the granddaughter (Samantha) had an

exceptionally close relationship with her grandmother (Sarah).

What made this especially interesting was that Samantha was

working with an HIV/AIDS support group and as a result had clear

and positive views on homosexual relations and gays and lesbians

34

in general. While in Indonesia and many other countries,

homosexual relationships are not acceptable and are rarely

discussed, in Canada there is a growing acceptance of homosexual

relationships and increasing efforts to engage with the problems

of people infected (or potentially infected) with HIV/AIDS1.

However, many religious sects, including the Catholic Church and

most of the more fundamental protestant groups, including the

Salvation Army, remain unbending on the issue. This led to some

interesting exchanges between Sarah and her granddaughter:

Marilyn: And what was the thinking in the Salvation Army

about gay relationships?

Sarah: Well they don’t agree with it.

Marilyn: Even now?

Sarah: No, no. They think it’s totally wrong.

Marilyn: So what do you think now?

Sarah: Oh, I don’t agree with it. Well I think, like

1 In Canada as elsewhere, HIV infection can come from drug use with infected needles and heterosexual intercourse as well as homosexual intercourse, but inthe popular mind, HIV/AIDS is still associated with homosexuality, as it is inthis family.

35

this married bit right, I think if they want to go and get

married fine that’s up to themselves but I think if they

want to get married well there is gay ministers. If they

want to get married fine go to a gay minister and get

married. That’s the way I look at it. I don’t know if

they can, I often wonder, it’s in the Bible about being

gay

Marilyn: Well there’s lots of things in the Bible…

Sarah: Yeah but I’m saying is, is in the Bible about a

man lying with another man.

Marilyn: So how do you feel about Samantha, who is

working with quite a lot of gay people

Sarah: Yeah I know. I don’t know if they can help it or

what I don’t know. I often wonder if they’re born like it

or if it’s just something that happens to them. Yeah. I

often wondered. Well how would you know if you were born

like it... What do you think Samantha?

Samantha: Well I got a completely different view than

36

you, you know.

Sarah: Yeah because you’re involved with them right. Now

I mean just because someone is gay doesn’t mean that I

wouldn’t be friends with them. I wouldn’t be like that

you know because they’re only human, right.

Marilyn: What would you do if one of you daughters or

your grandchildren was gay?

Sarah: I don’t know. I often wondered about that. Yeah

I often wondered about it. I don’t think I’d, I wouldn’t

turn away from them, I’d still love them, I certainly

would. I just hope it doesn’t happen.

Samantha: See to me someone’s sexual orientation is just

the same as their hair color or their eye color. It’s

just part of who they are and I don’t see that as anything

different or wrong.

Sarah: Oh no. But I don’t think two men should marry I

don’t think that but like I said I wouldn’t I mean I got

nothing against them as long as they stay....

37

This extract illustrates an older woman trying to come to terms

with a new ideology. Clearly, the conversation here is part of a

much longer one between the two women. Sarah is pulled between

her religion, and the overt stipulations of her pastors, and her

granddaughter, whom she loves and respects. Samantha, on the

other hand, could easily just ignore her grandmother’s views. She

is free to adopt whatever ideas she chooses and put them into

practice. But she has taken the time and effort to try to explain

the changes in her thinking to her grandmother and the rest of

her family.

Samantha: My grandparents ...like they just assume that I

know everyone who’s gay and they think that the only

people who get HIV are gay men ...anyway my grandmother,

she always asks me about work and how its going she likes

to know how things are…but she can’t really get it. They

don’t get angry or offended or uncomfortable, they

just...

38

Marilyn: but the fact that you’re working with the AIDS

committee has obviously had an effect of your family

because they’re just not that familiar with the ideas as

other people would be.

Samantha: yup. They’ve been kinda forced to think about

it. I mean they’ve met people, men and women who are gay

and lesbian that they would never have if it wasn’t

through me and its kinda forced them, like my mom might

have said to you my friend Ron, my co-worker and he’s

gay, and it was the first time that she had ever met

someone who was gay and like a real live gay person, and

she was but he’s just a normal person and I said yes! He

just chooses to be with men and its... it forced them to

go outside their comfort zone. I think that’s been a good

thing.

Marilyn: do you think that’ll spread you know so that

their tolerance will then spread to other people that

they know?

39

Samantha: Yes, I think so. It’s definitely made a

difference with my brother. He picked up a lot of his

homophobic attitudes from my dad but I can see such a

difference in him! Since I, remember him saying that all

gay people should be put on an island, separated from the

rest of the world, and I think killed or something really

horrible and I said Carl, my god! And he said well its

true, its wrong, blah blah blah, he grew up, this was the

sentiment that was in my house but a couple of years

later, remember this boy in Ontario, it was a big debate

if he could take his male date to the prom. And my dad

was like, Oh my god I can’t believe they’re going to let

him take another boy to the prom and Carl didn’t say

anything and he told me after, he said, I just goes along

with dad because that’s what he wants to hear. He said, I

don’t care who he takes to the prom. And I think, little

by little it’s getting better.

40

Newfoundland has such a small Muslim population that the

spread of extremist Islamic ideology was not an issue in our

data. However, extensive coverage of acts of terror have led

Newfoundlanders, like other westerners, towards a hostile and

suspicious view of Islam and of Muslims. These ‘new ideas’ of

extremism do not affect our participants directly, but they do

enhance dangerous possibilities for a polarized view of society.

The situation in Indonesia is very different, where more radical

Muslim ideas are taking root with profound and negative effects

for women, and where younger women, in particular, seem to be

more vulnerable to their influence. In our introduction we

mentioned the spread of Sharia law and the increase in specific

regulations to restrict women’s rights and freedoms. Sharia and

restrictive and oppressive views of women are becoming very

strong in some parts of Indonesia, with significant impact on

women. What is even more dangerous, in our view, is the way in

which when such ideas, which constrain and control women, become

dominant, women, especially young women, begin to adopt them as

their own. In other words, they internalize a repressive

41

ideology. Clothing is often an indicator of this, together with

more strict adherence to practices of obedience to male relatives

(especially in matters of marriage and freedom of movement). This

is the clearest example in our data of ‘new ideas’ that do not

further women’s freedom, but rather turn the clock back, and,

indeed, spurred us to write this article.

However, the Indonesian data also shows ideas migrating across

generations more positively, especially in relation to myths and

taboos about women or about how they should behave. Such myths

and taboos tend to be stronger in rural and remote places (such

as in Madura). Even when some women in big cities told us about

the practices they learned from their mothers or grandmothers,

they seem to be more flexible in practicing them. The older

generations put ‘something spiritual’ in the practice of taboos

and myths, while the younger ones just saw them as ‘practices’.

We can also see changes in the ways women cope with

heterosexual power relations: sometimes they live the way their

mothers lived, maybe because they believe what their mothers

42

believed about coping with their powerlessness in relationships

with husbands or men; a husband’s infidelity; polygamy; a

husband’s inability to perform his duty as bread winner; abuses,

etc. In psychological terms we can see a variety of strategies to

deal with these problems -- they can learn and play: (a) the

passive/submissive role, (b) the more dominant-frustrated role,

trying to fix the problem by working very hard and burdening

themselves with responsibility, taking charge of everything and

got stuck with the abuses, or (c) by decisively leaving the

relationship. It seems that they tend to choose to live their

lives in the way their mothers did, which influences them

considerably. For instance, Hasna was 55 years old, married with

two living children. She was born in Madura, and moved to

Banjarmasin (the capital city of South Kalimantan), but then flew

back to Madura to get married, and currently is staying in

Madura. She never attended school. She married seven times,

rather than refuse proposals and suffere revenge at the hands of

her rejected suitors.. Like Samantha, she was very close to her

43

grandmother, and it was she who supported her to be brave and

divorce her first husband (a policeman).

Hasna: I followed my father and mother who joined the

transmigration to Banjarmasin, but then I came back to

Madura and got married here. I don’t have parents

anymore, they used to do farming. My parents they both

died already. My father beat me if I didn’t obey, he would

talk rude, and beat me. My mother used to tell me, just

obey, if not, you will get beaten… sometimes my mother

beat me also… My grandmother told me to fight back when

they beat me, but I didn’t, I just run… I was afraid to be

beaten all the time, it is a pity thinking about my

parents, about the old times…

Hasna: My first marriage was arranged. His family came to

my parents to propose to me, and my parents agreed just

like that. Maybe because of the tradition in Madurese

44

families, when someone asks you, you have to accept, if

not, they might get angry, you can get killed… Also my

other marriages, they (the men) asked me, and we were

afraid if we didn’t accept the proposal… seven times I got

wed… I married and divorced, seven times. If we didn’t

accept, we were afraid, they would use magic on us… I was

so afraid, they also said, just accept, because if not,

you could get killed… But then I married my last husband,

he is good, very knowledgeable about religious law.

Hasna’s younger sister, Rasmini, who was also interviewed,

explained that she married very early and she has already got

married five times. Ira, a young woman who is also from Madura,

also explained the same thing about Madurese culture.

Ira: Ehmm… Madurese women, they are quick to get married.

They are afraid if somebody approaches and proposes and

they don’t accept, they will experience something bad

happening to them. Such as my neighbor here, she is afraid

45

if she will live with a very old and rude husband like the

grandfather. Because when a woman refuses, she might then

have something bad, like having a husband like that…

But it is quite surprising that even though they feel compelled

to marry, the women, at least from Hasna’s family, seem to be

brave enough to divorce their husbands if the husband does not

meet their criteria of being a good husband.

Rasmini: My husband always hurt me because I didn’t have

children. I said to him, ‘its OK if you would like to

remarry to have children.’ You know men… but then we just

got divorced, because of not having children. It was two

years with my second husband. Then I went to Mekkah. With

my last husband, it’s already 15 years of marriage. It is

OK with him, but he already has two from his first wife,

he was a widower, having two children your age.

46

The more liberated and free spirited women seem to be widening

the horizon for their daughters. They asked their daughters to

study; let them choose how to live their lives (such as a strong

middle class Chinese woman in Surabaya, or a middle class

activist in Jakarta). On the other hand, the case of Mastika

(the first generation, now 82 years old) and Dwi (the second

generation, 48 years old) and Emi (third generation, 16 years

old) who lived in Surabaya, shows that even though Mastika was a

very strong and independent woman, she transferred her ideas to

the subsequent generations that men are to be suspected and not

trusted; or that life is so hard to live that they would not

enjoy and feel relaxed in their daily lives. And so Dwi then

lived with so many insecurities and also transferred her

anxieties to her daughter, Emi.

Dwi: My mother allowed me to go (with her choice), but not

with my (man) own choice. Actually, I was never open to my

mom about my own choice. My mom wouldn’t allow me to go

with men, she was afraid that I would get engaged for

47

quite a long time to a man, but he may never ask me to get

married. Also she was afraid that I may go out and get

pregnant. My feeling…. I felt afraid, I just followed my

mom’s order. I was afraid it would really happen (what my

mom said if I didn’t obey her)…. Actually, I didn’t like

him (her husband) (the first time we met). But when I went

out, his mom asked my mom for me. Without my permission,

the proposal was accepted. Then when I came home, I asked:

‘why did you accept?’ My mom just said: ‘the important

thing is that he is good.’ I felt very troubled. I felt

forced, because I never knew him before. But slowly I saw

that he was a good man, patient.

Interviewer: If you had refused, what would happen with

your mom?

Dwi: She could get mad. ‘If you don’t follow my words,

whom will you follow?’ My father at that time, was already

ill, couldn’t walk. But he just followed my mom’s words.

He never told me what to do. Then I got married, and two

years later, when I was 24, he died.

48

Interviewer: In a way she is very traditional, but in

another way, she permitted her daughter to go for high

education?

Dwi: Yes, she is like that. I told her I would like to go

to high school, and when I told her I could buy the books,

she agreed. But my elder brother said he would like to go

directly to work. (My mom) was also involved in rearing my

children. She said: ‘You are not allowed to play with

someone from ‘uncertain background.’

My daughter had her first menses in the 3rd grade of

secondary school, just like me. She even didn’t tell the

truth when I asked. She is timid, and she used tissue at

that time. She is timid, so I didn’t tell her much. We

like to protect her, so her father takes her to school

every day, and also picks her up.

While Mastika, her mother, was a very strong independent woman,

Dwi was also very independent economically, as she realized that

49

her husband was not earning enough. But she seems to continue the

way her mother treated her, controlling her daughter’s life due

to her anxiety about her. And she also showed contradictory

messages in terms of Emi’s education.

Dwi: Our problem was financial. I was afraid I would live

a difficult life, the same when I was a child, and

actually, it happened again. He worked in the railway

office, with a small salary. So, after having family, I

still continued selling things. I still woke up very early

like I used to. I thought of having a better life but… it

is still like that…

Interviewer: Do you plan to send your daughter to high

school?

Dwi: It is her who doesn’t want to. She said she will go

up to high school only. She would like to work after, she

said: ‘I am not that clever, mom…’ Actually I want her to

go to university, and with God’s permission if I have

money, I will send her to university.

50

But at another time she explained: (When parents do not

have enough money for children’s schooling, who should be

put in the second priority?) It must be the girl. We hope

she doesn’t have to drop out, but just in case, the girl

should be put in the second… Because men have great

responsibility in their future… But women are not like

that….

Her contradictory messages, as well as her dominant role and

protective attitude towards her daughter, left Emi unsure about

her mother’s real concern for her. She cried when saying that

actually she really would like to continue higher education, but

didn’t feel sure if her parents could support her financially.

Interviewer: When your school arranged for all the

students to go for a picnic, would your mother allow you

to go?

Emi: No, she didn’t. She said, ‘we don’t have enough

money. Better to save the money for the future….

51

Interviewer: What would you like for yourself?

Emi: I like to go to university. But when I graduated

from high school, he (my father) was already retired. Then

I couldn’t go to university. I have to work.

Interviewer: It seems that you aren’t sure that you can go

to university?

Emi: (Nodding) Yeah, it is very expensive…. (you feel

disappointed?) Yes. Very very disappointed. (Crying).

In this section we have provided some detailed examples from our

data of the diversity of ways in which ideas can be transmitted

across generations. There is no general conclusion; in some cases

more progressive ideas for women enter the family with the

younger women but do not get transmitted up to the older

generations; in others these ideas affect the whole family. The

more repressive ideas that constrain women are, by and large,

held by older women and are resisted by younger ones, who bring

newer ideas of freedom into the family. The exception is the

rapid infiltration of repressive ideas based on an extremist

52

version of Islam that is becoming much stronger in Indonesia.

More recently, we have seen women in Indonesia, especially

educated women in Jakarta, mounting a strong resistance to

repressive practices and presenting a much more enlightened view

of Islam.

Learning from each other: Examples of migration of ideas between

colleagues.

In this section we look at our own interaction to see if we could

uncover the positive ways in which ideas are transmitted. These

‘notes’ provide examples of how we felt when we encountered new

ideas from each other, and how our ideas and approaches changed

as a result of our work together. We think that our experience

provides some indication of how ideas migrate between individual

researchers and groups of researchers working together. These are

positive examples, but we need to be aware of the critical

pivotal point when ideas first come together, when they can be

received either positively or negatively. The fundamental

53

hostility to diversity, new experiences and the recognition that

new people bring new ideas is at the heart of racism. Conversely,

an acceptance of diversity and an openness to new ideas is

crucial to the development of a genuine integration of immigrants

into any society.

Notes from Kristi:

Marilyn and I have already worked together for more than 12

years. In the beginning, I was just a junior faculty in the WS

Program trying to perform my job, perceiving Marilyn as much more

senior, the friend of my ‘boss,’ someone from a ‘western

country,’ who tried to support the WS Program at UI by making a

proposal of linkage work to get funding for library development,

study visits etc.

At this point I struggled to cope with some different

things: (a) feminist theories and ideas which I found quite

fascinating, challenging, an eye-opener and promising (because in

the ‘conventional’ and ‘mainstream’ psychology I didn’t get the

54

idea of power differences and imbalances); (b) the anti-feminist

attitude of the general public (such as the perception that

feminism was anti-religion, anti-men, anti-family, western,

dichotomous, and so on). I didn’t really believe this, especially

after discussions with Marilyn and other Canadian team members,

but I still found it hard to argue against these anti-feminist

positions; and (c) the attitude of some prominent feminists in

Indonesia, who appeared to be very certain of themselves, even

arrogant, and too inclined to disparage others (whom they thought

were not feminist enough). These feminists, especially those who

had traveled abroad, showed little patience in trying to

understand others’ feelings and thoughts. When we discussed

differences, these kinds of ‘feminists’ asserted that they

already had the ‘correct’ and the final say. My background in

psychology made it especially difficult as those feminists didn’t

believe that psychology could be feminist at all. All these

things left me undecided, unsure and somewhat ‘insecure’.

55

I remembered Marilyn as having a different ‘feminist’

outlook. Is it because she is from academia as well? As far as I

remember Marilyn almost never pushed and forced her ideas. She

would listen, just enjoy being a listener to really understand

what was going on in our society and then shared her ideas. When

I went for Canada for the first time (1993, and this was the very

first time I went out very far from my country), I was fascinated

by how things were regulated and managed and how people follow

the rules for the benefits of all, and I thought: ‘Wow, this is

easy and comfortable to live this way’ (compared to my country

where people have to struggle to survive since regulations were

there but everybody is joking that rules are there not to follow

but to ‘break’).’ In Canada I also met other feminist colleagues,

who were also very nurturing, listening and really respecting

others. Even though Marilyn and other colleagues are from a

‘western’ country, working with Marilyn made me believe that a

truly feminist value is to respect and empower oneself and

others. That is what I believe and I would like to show others.

56

Maybe Marilyn didn’t realize, but working with her also

strengthened my understanding of how to work ‘professionally.’ I

still remember when both of us had to do a series of research

methodology workshops for the staff of three universities in

Makassar, South Sulawesi. When I came the first day, I met

Marilyn who was already there, sitting in her room working on her

computer. I was surprised when in answer to my question, she said

that she was writing the report for our activity. I asked: ‘how

come, we didn’t even begin the session,’ and then I learned how

there were so many things already there to write, such as the

curriculum, the process we planned, etc, that it was really

‘smart’ to begin to do a report. Maybe that is how I try to work

from that time on to now, since I have so many things to

coordinate in Women’s Studies in the University, in Pulih

Foundation, an NGO I and some friends set up to focus on trauma

intervention and psychosocial empowerment, as well as in the

Faculty of Psychology, the first institution I worked in.

Notes from Marilyn:

57

Two things stand out from my memories of those early days of

developing the linkage between Memorial University’s Women’s

Studies Program and Program Studi Kajian Wanita at the University

of Indonesia. The first was my sense of being overwhelmed by a

totally new culture and society. Everything was different, from

the climate and the language to the subtleties of social

interaction. I suffered the usual ‘culture shock’ that every

anthropologist knows so well, compounded by the fact that as

leader of the team, I had also to make my Canadian colleagues

comfortable enough to carry out their work. The learning was

intense, but the most expert guidance came from our colleagues in

Kajian Wanita. They had to explain, in terms I could understand,

the history, the social structure, the university structure etc.

They also had to explain how to behave appropriately and

effectively in the Indonesian context. In addition, I had to

understand how my own feminist understandings might be understood

in the Indonesian context; how ideas could be presented to

students and faculty in a way that was persuasive; which ideas

should simply be left on the shelf for the moment. Faced with

58

situations I simply didn’t understand, I relied on Kristi and her

colleagues to guide me. This, of course, is the dramatic learning

curve of any sociologist or anthropologist entering a new

culture.

My other early memory centers on seeing how our colleagues

organized their program, their finances, their workspace and

their working relations. While they had asked us to help them

with theory and methodology and especially in understanding the

complex debates within the literature in English and more

available in Canada, we felt that they had already gone further

than we had in putting feminist ideas of equality and respect

into practice in their daily lives. When we went back to our own

situation in Canada we tried to replicate the atmosphere of calm

and respectful interaction in our own noisy, confrontational and

hierarchical program. In this we were helped by the presence of

Indonesian students who came to Memorial University to do their

graduate work in Women’s Studies. Most of the students in the

program were from Newfoundland and had little experience of other

59

cultures. While the Indonesian students had to learn about

Canada, Newfoundland and how to integrate, the Canadian students

had to work with -- and therefore understand -- their new

colleagues. It was a dramatic success, with intense learning

going both ways, and understanding spreading out to the wider

university community. This was particularly the case around

religion. The Indonesian students were all Muslims; many of the

Canadian students were both practicing Christians and the victims

of media misrepresentations about Islam (this was during the

period of 9/11). It did not take long for the students to inform

each other about the essentials of their religious practice, and

also to share in the main festivals (especially around Christmas

and Idul Fitr). The key elements were the equality of the

relationships between the students and an incentive to learn and

to integrate.

Twelve years on, I am still learning from Kristi and my

other colleagues. And the situation is changing. The political

situation has become ever more complex and the dangers to women

60

(especially) in times of civil conflict and the rise of

fundamentalist ideas has grown. Despite all my efforts to ‘keep

up’ by reading internet newspapers and journals, things change

too rapidly and my knowledge of the society is not profound

enough to understand the ramifications. Kristi is always

available to summarize, and to point to the significant changes

that I must understand. Her version may not be the only

interpretation of the situation, but it provides me with an

excellent starting point from which to continue my ‘learning.’

None of this will surprise people with a sociological or

anthropological background, but it is worth stressing that such

positive experiences of learning from new experiences are not

necessarily so common. I went to Indonesia (and return there)

with a fundamental respect for the culture and a desire to learn

and understand. I also have a secure base in my own country and

at my own university. This is a privileged position. Very few

migrants will have the same experience of being shepherded

through the complexities of a new culture; nor will they have a

61

tutor in how to behave so as to be acceptable to the receiving

culture. While I am visibly distinct, and in Jakarta have the

potential to be part of a large, privileged white circle, I do

not pose an economic threat to those I work among. This is in

stark contrast to the experience of many immigrants to

economically prosperous countries such as Canada. While many of

them wish to learn about the receiving culture as anxiously as I

wished to learn about the Indonesian culture, it takes two sides

to make this a success. The successful integration of immigrants,

especially those of a different color and with inadequate

English, depends on the kind of support and tuition that I

received from Kristi.

Conclusion.

In this paper we have tried to bring together a number of ideas

and anchor them in the experience of women in both Newfoundland

and Indonesia -- two very different cultures and societies. We

62

have been concerned both about the experience of migration for

women, and with some tentative enquiry into how ideas, especially

those that affect women’s position. In Newfoundland we have seen

a gradual liberalization of views on sexual and other freedoms.

We can also see that economic forces have driven both men and

women (and, increasingly, families) to move to find work and

economic security, whether or not they want to. This has

contradictory effect on women’s situation, but appears not to

have a great effect on their ideas. It does, however, loosen the

control that parents have over their daughters’ behavior. Ideas

are changing over time, and here we can see more direct ways in

which new ideas can pass through generations. We should note,

however, that such ideas pass up the generations, not down. This

means that new ideas are constantly battling with established

authority. While this is not as strong in Newfoundland as in some

other cultures, it is a factor, and one that has been weakened by

increased migration. On the other hand, not all new ideas are

progressive or to the advantage of women. There is startling

evidence from Indonesia that ideas that lead to severe

63

restrictions on women’s freedom are spreading rapidly, and

becoming entrenched in regulations.

Migration of people and ideas is a major factor of both our

own societies and world trends. Most migration is still

economically driven, although there are increasing numbers of

both internally displaced people and international refugees. The

rapid strengthening of global capitalism will have profound but

as yet uncertain effects on migration trends (Cooke and Belanger,

2006). Ideas, both progressive and regressive will continue to

spread, ever more quickly because of the growth and availability

of ICTs. Women will continue to be systemically disadvantaged

unless we take steps to resist repressive forces and channel

change into progressive directions.

While these forces are operating all over the world, we can

see it especially clearly in Indonesia, in the spread of both

regulations and ideas that constrain women. As we have seen from

the example of our own relationship, it is very easy to move

ideas between people when they share a strong sense of purpose

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and a desire for identity. If this shared social identity is a

religious one then it seems to become even more powerful. In

Indonesia we are seeing increasing polarization between ‘Muslim’

and ‘non Muslims’. Even within the Muslim identity, Muslims feel

the pressure that they will be censured as ‘not good Moslems’ if

they don’t agree to the idea of having the Islamic Law (the

Sharia) as the one to regulate the society. At the same time

prejudice towards other groups is cultivated and is becoming very

strong. Within the fundamentalist reading of Islam, women are

positioned as inferior, less moral and in need of being confined

and defined by men (who claim to be more knowledgeable and have

more authority).

There is increasing danger that the combination of an

exclusive sense of ‘identity,’ combined with the power of such

ideas, can rapidly lead to violence and a segregated society. It

can also lead, as we have seen in terrorist attacks around the

world, to the polarization of identity between ‘macro’ groups –

‘the West,’ ‘the US’ etc on one side; Arabs, Islamists,

65

terrorists on the other. While we are acutely aware that our

tentative work on the connections between migration of people and

migration or ideas is preliminary and inadequate, we remain

convinced of the importance of the project.

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Resumes:

Marilyn Porter was born and educated in the UK and moved to

Canada in 1980, where she has taught and researched in Sociology

and Women's Studies at Memorial University, Newfoundland ever

since. She has published widely, mostly in the areas of women's

economic lives, reproductive health and feminist methodology. Her

current interest is in the methodology of comparative, cross

cultural feminist research. She has two children and three

granddaughters. Email: [email protected]

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