Antje Missbach - Refugees growing up in limbo

Indonesia is currently home to over 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers, a majority of them young people who are stuck in limbo waiting for their futures to be determined. For most, it takes years, sometimes more than a decade, for resettlement to become an option. In the meantime, for those who arrive in Indonesia as children and teenagers this means that much of their youth and formative years - when they look to form relationships, explore their sexuality and establish their identities - are also ones in which they have very limited opportunities for education, work and recreation. This means growing up amid endless boredom and with few pathways into society. The recent arrivals of boatloads of Rohingya refugees on Aceh’s shores is a stark reminder that the asylum seeker issue is not going away. New solutions are needed to enable the thousands currently in Indonesia, to establish a somewhat normal life.

With onward pathways to Australia and beyond cut off and resettlement extremely slow, will Indonesia shift its rhetoric and recognise its status as a destination, rather than transit, country for refugees? What will this mean for those stranded in Indonesia? Will they finally be permitted to integrate and make a place in society?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Antje Missbach, Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany. Antje is an expert on asylum seekers in Indonesia and specialises in global and transnational migration and mobility.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: /Ali Froghi