Relocations of the households affected by the development of the New Yogyakarta International Airport, Indonesia: problems and livelihood prospects

Abstract

Land acquisition for infrastructure development in Indonesia, including Yogyakarta International Airport, has adopted a new principle of profitable compensation. Two options were created: voluntary self-relocation and government-assisted relocation. People whose farms were only partially appropriated by the project did not need to join the relocation. This paper compares problems faced by the three groups and their livelihood prospects, especially their employment four years after receiving financial compensation. Data available from 2018 would be referred to as a complement to our household survey data from 2021. Although by implementing profitable land compensation in land procurement, the YIA (Yogyakarta International Airport) project has been considered an example of successful land appropriation, many problems are reported by the affected population four years later. There are typical problems related to the early stage of settlement development, such as unemployment, environmental issues, dismissal of neighbourhoods and households, and conflictual events recorded between neighbours. On the other hand, the expenditure patterns indicate that the affected population have spent their compensation money more wisely. Thus, the prospect of their livelihood would be improved when measures in the original village and in cases of voluntary self-relocation areas but not in the government relocation areas. From various variables of financial management, there is a consistent pattern that the population from the original settlement and those who self-relocated would be able to maintain their financial resources and thus improve their future livelihood.