Does Competencies of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Accordance with International Standards?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31098/issues.v5i2.2849Keywords:
Indonesian Migrant Workers, Competency Certification, Job TrainingAbstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of competency certification in supporting the career continuity of Indonesian Migrant Workers (IMWs) in host countries. Mandated by Law No. 18 of 2017, competency certification is positioned as a prerequisite for placement, based on the assumption that it ensures the quality and competitiveness of Indonesian labor. However, many IMWs continue to experience repatriation due to perceived incompetence. This research employed a qualitative case study approach through in-depth interviews with eight informants three informal-sector IMWs in Taiwan and five officials from BP3MI/KP2MI across various regions supplemented by a focus group discussion with two policy experts. Thematic analysis using NVivo 12 identified five key themes: (1) challenges of varying standards, costs, and limited access; (2) the need for international recognition; (3) the role of government and private actors in monitoring and support; (4) certification as a driver of competitiveness and employment opportunities; and (5) certification as a legal safeguard and instrument of quality standardization. The findings show that certification positively influences IMWs’ entry into the international labor market and enhances their confidence. However, its long-term impact remains limited due to the absence of global recognition, misalignment between training curricula and workplace demands, and weak post-placement support. These results align with the Theory of Attitude and Behavior and the Theory of Planned Behavior, indicating that training fosters positive attitudes and social norms, yet sustained professional behavior is hindered by low perceived behavioral control caused by structural barriers. The study recommends harmonizing certification standards with destination countries, improving the relevance of training curricula, and strengthening institutional support after placement. Ultimately, competency certification must be complemented by continuous learning systems to effectively enhance IMWs’ quality and career sustainability.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI). (2024). Laporan remitansi tahunan 2023. Bank Negara Indonesia.
BP2MI. (2023). Data penempatan dan pemulangan PMI 2023. Jakarta: BP2MI.
BP2MI. (2023). Laporan tahunan Badan Pelindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia 2023. Jakarta: BP2MI.
BP2MI. (2024). Statistik penempatan PMI tahun 2023. https://www.bp2mi.go.id
Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M., & Griffiths, P. (2020). Burnout in nursing: A theoretical review [Review of Burnout in nursing: A theoretical review]. Human Resources for Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00469-9
Fabbri, C., Stöckl, H., Jones, K., Cook, H., Galez-Davis, C., Grant, N. R., Lo, Y., & Zimmerman, C. (2023). Labor recruitment and human trafficking: Analysis of a global trafficking survivor database. International Migration Review, 57(2), 629. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183221139120
Fauziah, N., & Handayani, R. (2022). Prosedur penempatan dan masalah kesesuaian kerja PMI. Jurnal Pembangunan SDM, 6(4), 98–113.
Fudge, J. (2011). The precarious migrant status and precarious employment: The paradox of international rights for migrant workers. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1958360
Hojeij, Z., Alsuwaidi, S., & Ahmed, S. (2024). Scoping the literature on professional development for educators and educational leaders in the UAE. Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 9(3), 216. https://doi.org/10.30828/real.1480120
Jiang, X., Qin, J., Gao, J., & Gossage, M. G. (2022). How tourists’ perception affects travel intention: Mechanism pathways and boundary conditions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821364
Jiayan, L., Rajanthran, S. K., Fu-yu, Y., & Qiaochuan, X. (2023). Impact of hierarchical, horizontal and team-based organisational structures on full-time teachers’ performance in Chinese secondary schools. International Journal of Education and Practice, 11(4), 897. https://doi.org/10.18488/61.v11i4.3544
Kemnaker. (2023). Peraturan pelaksanaan UU No. 18 Tahun 2017.
Kemnaker. (2022). Evaluasi kurikulum pelatihan calon PMI tahun 2022.
Koesbardiati, T., Kinasih, S. E., Murti, D. B., Ida, R., & Wahyudi, I. (2021). Pemberdayaan dikalangan calon pekerja migran dalam rangka pencegahan penyakit menular di Desa Benculuk, Kecamatan Celuring, Kabupaten Banyuwangi Jawa Timur. Jejaring Administrasi Publik, 13(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.20473/jap.v13i1.29359
Lee, C., Ting, L.-J., Yeh, W.-C., & Zheng, Y. (2021). The influence of the technical dimension, functional dimension, and tenant satisfaction on tenant loyalty: An analysis based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, 25(6), 469. https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2021.15566
Li, H., & Wang, S. (2019). Antecedents of consumers’ intention to purchase energy-efficient appliances: An empirical study based on the Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior. Sustainability, 11(10), 2994. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102994
Maulidah, R. (2021). Pengawasan penempatan PMI di masa pandemi. Jurnal Perlindungan Migran, 5(3), 201–215.
Mindarti, L. I., & Anggraeni, F. (2020). The empowerment of post-Indonesian migrant workers’ family through a productive migrant village program (Desmigratif). https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.201116.006
Musfiroh, M. (2021). Peran pelatihan dan sertifikasi kompetensi terhadap kesiapan tenaga kerja Indonesia di pasar global. Jurnal Ketenagakerjaan Indonesia, 17(2), 45–56.
Nickell, G. S., & Hinsz, V. B. (2023). Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand workers’ production of safe food. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 39(2), 89. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2023a10
Permata, A., Wati, L. N., & Soma, M. (2025). Application of Total Quality Management to the Operational Performance of the PT Arohera Company.Organization and Human Capital Development, 4(1), 54–71. https://doi.org/10.31098/orcadev.v4i1.3056
Rahayu, D. (2018). Migrant workers’ village as an effort to strengthen the rights of Indonesian migrant workers. SHS Web of Conferences, 54, 02001. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185402001
Rahayu, D. (2019). Undocumented Indonesian migrant workers; Solution or omission. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Science 2019 (ICSS 2019). https://doi.org/10.2991/icss-19.2019.128
Riansyah, Y., & Nurlaela Wati, L. (2024). Kasus penyelesaian klaim pekerja migran Indonesia di luar negeri. Perspektif, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.53947/perspekt.v3i2.812
Skiba, R. (2020). Characteristics of effective health and safety training environments and trainers in Australian vocational education and training. International Journal of Vocational Education and Training Research, 6(2), 22. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijvetr.20200602.11
Susanti, L., & Ramadhan, Y. (2022). Efektivitas pelatihan kompetensi PMI di Balai Latihan Kerja. Jurnal Tenaga Kerja dan Migrasi, 10(2), 122–134.
Suwarsi, S., Frendika, R., Abdurrahman, D., Herdiyati, S. D., & Nuralfiani, A. (2020). Effectiveness of training and development toward cultural competence of Indonesian fisheries migrant in South Korea. In Proceedings of the 2nd Social and Humaniora Research Symposium (SoRes 2019). https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200225.093
Triandis, H. C. (1980). Values, attitudes, and interpersonal behavior. In M. M. Page (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1979 (pp. 195–259). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Wati, I. K., Soma, A. M., & Ispriyahadi, H. (2024). Exploring user experiences with E-wallet DANA among Indonesian millennials: E-satisfaction and E-loyalty analysis. People and Behavior Analysis, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.31098/pba.v2i2.2317
Widiasanti, I., Anisah, A., Darussyafa, H., Lenggogeni, L., Saleh, R., Hermawan, H., & Mulyono, T. (2021). Dominant factors from the positive impact of competency certificate ownership. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 1098(2), 022037. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1098/2/022037
Zamroni, M. (2020). Aspek perlindungan hukum terhadap PMI. Jurnal Hukum dan Masyarakat, 8(1), 45–57.
Downloads
Published
Citation Check
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Yunus Riansyah, Lela Nurlaela Wati, Rita Yuni Mulyanti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Content Licensing, Copyright, and Permissions
- License
Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) has CC-BY NC as the optimal license for the publication, distribution, use, and reuse of scholarly work for non-commercial purpose. The non-commercial use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution license as currently displayed on Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Creative Commons License
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author(s), has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author(s).
3. User Rights
Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) objective is to disseminate articles published are as free as possible. Under the Creative Commons license, this journal permits users to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work for non-commercial purposes only. Users will also need to attribute authors and this journal on distributing works in the journal.
4. Rights of Authors
Authors retain the following rights:
Copyright, and proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
The right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books, The right to reproduce the article for own purposes, The right to self-archive the article, the right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article's published version (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal (Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies).
The author has a non-exclusive publishing contract with a publisher and the work is published with a more restrictive license, the author retains all the rights to publish the work elsewhere, including commercially, because she/he is not subject to the conditions of her / his own license, regardless of the type of CC license chosen.
5. Co-Authorship
If the article was jointly prepared by other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
6. Termination
This agreement can be terminated by the author or Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) upon two months’ notice where the other party has materially breached this agreement and failed to remedy such breach within a month of being given the terminating party’s notice requesting such breach to be remedied. No breach or violation of this agreement will cause this agreement or any license granted in it to terminate automatically or affect the definition of Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES).
7. Royalties
This agreement entitles the author to no royalties or other fees. To such extent as legally permissible, the author waives his or her right to collect royalties relative to the article in respect of any use of the article by This agreement can be terminated by the author or Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) upon two months’ notice where the other party has materially breached this agreement and failed to remedy such breach within a month of being given the terminating party’s notice requesting such breach to be remedied. No breach or violation of this agreement will cause this agreement or any license granted in it to terminate automatically or affect the definition of Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) or its sublicensee.
8. Miscellaneous
Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) will publish the article (or have it published) in the journal if the article’s editorial process is successfully completed and Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) or its sublicensee has become obligated to have the article published. Inclusive Society and Sustainability Studies (ISSUES) may conform the article to a style of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, referencing and usage that it deems appropriate. The author acknowledges that the article may be published so that it will be publicly accessible and such access will be free of charge for the readers
