THE INEVITABILITY OF LEAVING AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF STAYING AWAY: RURAL YOUTH MIGRATION AND AGRARIAN CHANGE IN FLORES, INDONESIA

Abstract

Are there different agrarian pathways for peripheral people and places? This study uses ethnographic methods to explore how younger generations’ connections to land and farming are changing in a rural village of Flores, Indonesia. I argue that the marginality of the village limits the livelihoods options for young people, making it seemingly impossible to stay in these rural areas, but also, impossible to leave. Using data from multiple generations, I show how greater numbers of young men and women migrate for education and off-farm work. In the village, I show how these societal changes affect social relations to land: labor is becoming increasingly limited, feminized, older and more expensive, and farming practices are becoming less communal. These findings suggest that the generational processes driving deagrarianization patterns in Flores are slow and uneven. The greater significance of this study are the questions it poses for cycles of intergenerational poverty and the future development of peripheral places and people.