SurveyMETER in collaboration with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) conducted a study on migrant workers or Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI) in two villages in the Kapetakan sub-district of Cirebon district of West Java Province and field data collection for this study was carried out from February to March 2014.

This research is prompted by the general fact that prospective TKI is so far still hardly critical in demanding the right to obtain correct and transparent information from the Private Indonesian Migrant Worker Placement (PPTKIS) because there is a possibility that the PPTKIS will mislead information for the sake of profit. Otherwise, most TKI does not really know about the PPTKIS selected. They often only read modules or brochures, without digging for information by looking for information from people who currently work or have worked at the PPTKIS.

Actually, prospective TKI has many choices in labor placement services with the proliferation of PPTKIS. The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) noted that there were more than 1,000 PPTKIS registered on their website. In theory, competition among PPTKIS should eliminate the agency's poor performance. Yet in reality, there are agencies that still carry out exploitation practices ranging from falsifying documents to attending pre-departure training, placements abroad that do not match skills and competencies, to failure in empowering Indonesian migrant workers after returning to Indonesia.

And, ironically, the available data regarding the condition and quality of sponsors, PPTKIS, and agencies are still very least possible in Indonesia. Therefore, it is necessary to have information that can be used as a reference for prospective TKI, so the level of failure to become a migrant worker may be anticipated from the outset. It is on the basis of these reviews that this study was designed. It aims to better understand the problems of migrant workers in Indonesia in choosing sponsors, PPTKIS, and agencies in terms of their knowledge of the quality and ability of migrant workers to provide information about the quality of migration agencies to potential migrants on migrant welfare and the migration market more broadly.

The sample selection for this study was conducted using the 2011 Village Potential (PODES) data to identify several villages to visit based on several demographic criteria, while the sample respondents taken were 250 female migrant workers who had returned from overseas during the 2011-2014 period. [JF]