Depok, 7 January 2026 — A doctoral graduate of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Ratna Dewi Wuryandari, revealed that the protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI), particularly at the pre-placement stage, continues to face various challenges despite Indonesia having a relatively strong regulatory framework. The pre-placement stage is considered the most critical phase, as it is at this stage that migration decisions are made, documents are processed, training is conducted, and various forms of early vulnerability emerge for prospective migrant workers.

This was conveyed by Ratna Dewi Wuryandari during her doctoral promotion session through a dissertation entitled “Model Interaksi Antar Aktor dalam Perlindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia pada Tahap Pra-Penempatan dari Perspektif Multi-Level Governance.” The study emphasizes that issues surrounding the protection of Indonesian migrant workers do not lie solely in regulatory aspects, but rather in how interactions among actors across different levels and sectors operate in practice.

“Protection of Indonesian migrant workers is not merely a regulatory issue, but primarily an issue of how the actors involved interact and share responsibilities within a single governance system,” she explained.

In the Indonesian context, although Law Number 18 of 2017 has served as the normative foundation for the protection of Indonesian migrant workers, various cases in the field indicate that protection at the pre-placement stage has not yet functioned optimally. This condition is influenced by the complexity of interactions between the central government, regional governments, village governments, as well as the involvement of non-government actors and informal actors at the local level.

This research is directed at answering two main questions, namely how interactions among actors operate in practice in protecting Indonesian migrant workers at the pre-placement stage, and what kind of governance model is most appropriate to explain and strengthen such interactions. For this reason, the Multi-Level Governance (MLG) approach is employed, as the protection of Indonesian migrant workers cannot be understood merely as a hierarchical relationship, but rather as a governance process involving multiple actors and various levels of government.

However, empirical findings indicate that neither hierarchical Type I MLG nor flexible, network-based Type II MLG fully explains the reality of governance in the protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Indonesia. Therefore, this study develops a contextual or hybrid Multi-Level Governance Model (Type III MLG).

The study adopts a qualitative approach with post-positivist and constructivist paradigms. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, document studies, and limited field observations. The research was conducted in four provinces, namely East Java, Central Java, West Java, and East Nusa Tenggara, involving various actors ranging from the central government (the Ministry of Manpower and BP2MI), regional governments, village governments, BP3MI, P3MI, civil society organizations, to community actors at the local level. Data analysis was carried out using NVivo software through a staged coding process.

The findings reveal three main results. First, vertical coordination across levels of government remains largely administrative in nature and has not yet developed into substantive collaboration. Second, horizontal coordination among actors has not been strongly institutionalized and still relies heavily on informal networks and personal initiatives. Third, interactions among actors take place within a distinctive governance setting, characterized by uneven institutional capacity, authority dispersed across various levels, and formal practices operating alongside informal mechanisms.

Based on these findings, the study proposes a Type III Multi-Level Governance Model, namely a governance model that continues to recognize the importance of hierarchical structures and regulatory certainty, while simultaneously accommodating local actor networks, communities, and informal mechanisms, and positioning villages as strategic nodes in the protection of Indonesian migrant workers at the pre-placement stage.

This research contributes academically through the development of a contextual Multi-Level Governance model within the context of a developing country, as well as providing practical contributions to strengthening cross-level coordination and the role of local actors in the protection of Indonesian migrant workers.

For information, the doctoral promotion session was chaired by Prof. Dr. Retno Kusumastuti Hardjono, M.Si., with Prof. Dr. Teguh Kurniawan, M.Sc. serving as Promotor and Dr. Umanto, M.Si. as Co-Promotor, and was supported by a Board of Examiners consisting of Dr. Ir. Dwi Untoro P. H., S.H., M.I.A., Dr. Tomi Oktavianor, M.Soc.Sc., Dr. Roy Valiant Salomo, M.Soc.Sc., and Dr. Fibria Indriati Dwi Liestiawati, M.Si.