The Ties That Bind and Enable: Migrant Infrastructure and Entrepreneurial Javanese in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Abstract

What allows migrant entrepreneurs to settle and thrive in new host destinations? What compels and enables migrants to fundamentally transform their livelihoods in new social and economic settings? This paper answers these questions by examining the role of migrant infrastructure in supporting mostly landless Javanese farmworkers' pivot to lucrative informal businesses in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Drawing on data from a household survey and in-depth interviews, our findings suggest that diverse social, cultural, technological, and economic infrastructures in host settings allow entrepreneurial migrants to establish themselves efficiently and effectively in these new settings. We show how Javanese informal businesses were able to thrive due to a complex web of support relations that include business opportunities in and around traditional markets in Kupang, as well as digitally mediated migrant networks and institutions. We argue that such trans-local migrant infrastructure plays a key but often understated role in linking internal migration, shifting livelihoods, and ethnic entrepreneurship in Indonesia.