Decentralized Migrant Worker Protection and Local Governance Capacity: An Integrated Protection Model from Indonesia

This article examines how Indonesian Migrant Worker (PMI) protection is implemented at the subnational level and explains why a gap persists between formal regulation and practical service delivery in West Bandung Regency. The study aims to assess the extent to which local regulation has been translated into an integrated protection system and to develop a governance model for strengthening decentralized migrant worker protection. A qualitative case study design was applied using policy documents, institutional records, interviews, field observations, focus group discussions, and NVivo 12-assisted thematic analysis. Coding was organized deductively through Van Meter and Van Horn’s implementation variables and inductively through emerging themes such as the absence of a one-stop integrated service, data fragmentation, village-level prevention, informal recruitment, coordination barriers, and post-return reintegration. The findings show that Regional Regulation No. 5 of 2018 provides a formal legal basis for protection, but its implementation remains largely administrative. Migrant worker protection is constrained by weak regulation-to-service translation, limited institutional resources, reactive inter-organizational coordination, fragmented implementing agencies, socio-economic pressures, and uneven implementor commitment. The evidence also indicates that non-procedural migration and protection cases continue to increase, while village-based literacy, integrated PMI data, and reintegration support remain insufficient. The article concludes that decentralized migrant worker protection depends not only on legal mandates, but also on local governance capacity, institutional integration, collaborative coordination, evidence-based data systems, and sustainable reintegration. It proposes an Integrated Local Migrant Protection Governance Model that links regulation, LTSA-based services, cross-sector collaboration, village prevention, data governance, and post-return support within a continuous protection cycle

Migrant Worker Protection; Local Governance; Policy Implementation; Decentralization; Indonesia

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