Transmigation of Javanese to Suriname by the Dutch in 1890-1939

Transmigation of Javanese to Suriname by the Dutch in 1890-1939

Long before the Indonesian government launched the Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI) program abroad, the Dutch colonialists, namely the Dutch government, from 1890 -- 1939 sent 32,956 Javanese people to Suriname. Indonesia's position at that time was that it was a colonial state under the Dutch government.
The purpose and objective of sending the Javanese to Suriname is to increase the labor shortage in several plantations in Suriname. The labor shortage itself was the result of the abolition and liberation of the slave system on July 1 1863. As a result, many plantations were not managed, leaving them abandoned. Suriname's economy, which was originally dependent on plantation products, has fallen drastically.

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ismail at Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1949 stated;
"It is not overpopulation that is the reason for migrating to Suriname, but rather the extreme poverty suffered by residents in several areas of Java on the one hand and the interests of plantations in Suriname on the other hand. Therefore, most of the transmigrants come from the island of Central Java, there is also East Java and the least from West Java.

The transmigration journey was divided into waves, the first wave of transmigration shipments totaling 94 people departed from Batavia (Jakarta) on May 21 1890 on the ship SS Koningin Emma. After stopping in the Netherlands, the ship finally arrived in Suriname on August 9 1890. Some Indonesian people, both those still living in Suriname and those living in the Netherlands, always remember and commemorate August 9 as a very historical date. The first batch was placed in the sugar cane plantations and sugar factory Marienburg. 

The second wave of transmigration, totaling 582 people, arrived in Suriname on June 16, 1894 by ship SS Voorwaarts. Because the second ship's load exceeded capacity, the ship did not meet the requirements, resulting in 64 passengers dying and 85 people having to be hospitalized. There was no response from the Dutch government for this sad incident, and it was simply forgotten. Maybe the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands thought that the only people who died were poor workers, so there was no need to follow up. Despite this, these labor deliveries continued throughout the year until the last shipment of 990 people arrived in Suriname on December 13, 1939.

From 1890 to 194, shipping routes to Suriname always arrived in the Netherlands, the rest of the transmigration was not sent using 77 ships, carried out by the private shipping company De Netherlandsche Handel Maatschappij, but since 1897, transmigration shipping was carried out by the Dutch East Indies government itself. It turns out that this transmigration program to Suriname has reduced the population density on the island of Java. 

On this basis, in November 1905 the Dutch royal government moved 155 heads of families from the island of Java (from the Kedu residency, namely from the district, Kebumen and Purworejo) to the Gedong Tataan area in the Lampung residency, South Sumatra. This is the beginning of the history of transmigration in Indonesia during the Dutch era with the name colonization.

So, since then transmigration or now called TKI began and continues to this day. Currently, transmigration is carried out in Lampung and the island of Kalimantan.