Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent in the Southern Philippines

Abstract

This chapter interrogates the prevalent misconception of host governments that migration disrupts rather than transforms their communities. Reflecting upon the works of Takeyuki Tsuda (2008) in the context of East Asian countries, the chapter attempts to unpack the concept of local citizenship when local governments in the southern Philippines subtly grant some fundamental socio-political rights and services to Persons of Indonesian Descent (PID) as legitimate members of their local communities. This study argues that the local governments in the southern Philippines have a significant role in performing acts of local citizenship for PID. This independent research is drawn from the researchers’ direct observation and long-term engagement with PID in Sarangani province, and General Santos City in the southern Philippines. The study hopes to generate discussions and alternative discourse on ‘citizenship from below’ for migrants and host countries in the region.

Full text

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Chapter 6
Rethinking Local Citizenship
andIntegration ofPersons ofIndonesian
Descent intheSouthern Philippines
AndersonV.Villa andAmorisaWiratri
6.1 Introduction
The prevalence of border crossings by members of some Southeast Asian societies
is both a cultural-historical and contemporary phenomenon. Although there is a
dearth of literature and related studies about Indonesians in the Philippines, various
Filipino communities at the border areas, comprising villages and neighbourhoods
close to the Indonesian sea border, have harmoniously settled with the Persons
of Indonesian Descent (PID). The term PID refers to the people from northern
Sulawesi islands in Indonesia who have settled in Mindanao. Since in terms of eth-
nicity, they are also commonly called Sangirs, this study will employ PID and
Sangirs interchangeably. The PID have already stayed in the southern Philippines
for generations and the level of integration can be assessed according to their gen-
erational stages of local residence in the region.
The Indonesian diasporic community in the southern Philippines has already
existed since the 1400s, while the migration of people from Sangihe started
towardsthe end of the fteenth century(Racines, 2010). Moreover,Tan-Cullamar
(1993) found a new wave of Sangirs migration occurred around the 1930s due to the
Great Depression. Harsono (2019) further expoundedona wave of migration to the
southern Philippines around the 1960s. These two recent waves of migration created
what this study identies as the Persons of Indonesian Descent in the southern
A. V. Villa (*)
Mindanao State University, General Santos City, Philippines
e-mail: avvilla@msugensan.edu.ph
A. Wiratri (*)
Research Center for Area Studies, National Research and Innovation Agency,
Jakarta, Indonesia
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia,
Perth, Australia
e-mail: amorisa.wiratri@research.uwa.edu.au
© The Author(s) 2023
S. Petcharamesree, M. P. Capaldi (eds.), Migration in Southeast Asia, IMISCOE
Research Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25748-3_6

96
Philippines. Therefore, the PID in the southern Philippines can be seen as a product
of intergenerational human movement. Today some of them can be found in some
areas in the southern Philippines, including General Santos City and Sarangani
province, as seen on the map below (Fig.6.1).
As foreigners in the Philippines, the relationship between Sangirs and the
Philippines has been an interesting study space (Talampas, 2015; Tan-Cullamar,
1993). Talampas (2015) found that the penetration of the state could not be easily
found in the Indonesian community in the southern Philippines. He argued that the
inuence of governmentality could be seen on the Indonesian side rather than the
Philippines side. Meanwhile, Tan-Cullamar (1993) claimed that the Indonesian dia-
sporic community in the southern Philippines could be a bridge to strengthen the
diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Both believe that the
Fig. 6.1 The location of the PID in Southern Mindanao. (Adapted from Free World Maps, 2021;
Suggested reference: Dy (2017))
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

97
relationship between Sangirs and the host country, the Philippines, has been a
largely positive one. However, Racines (2010) found a stigma attached to the
Indonesian population on the border of the Philippines as they were perceived
ofhaving taken theland and jobsaway fromthe local people. As shown inthe previ-
ous studies, the relationship between Sangirs at the local level is rathercomplex,
and how it is evaluated depends on the kind ofperspectives adopted. For instance,
on one hand,the central government in Indonesia and the Philippinesmay view the
matter as national securitythreat. On the other hand,at the local level, the relation-
ship between PID and the local community appears to be harmonious.
This study does not compare the relationship between PID and the local and
central governments in the Philippines. Instead, it examines further how the PID
have positioned themselves in the Philippines and how the local government in the
Philippines performs local citizenship for PID, topics which have not been explored
in the existing literature. The idea of local citizenship proposed in this paper covers
the area that is excluded from the legal citizenship approach. It is argued that in the
local context, migrants and the local government units negotiate and perform citi-
zenship differently from the traditional citizenship approach.
This study took place in two locations in the Southern Philippines, Sarangani
province and General Santos City. Sarangani province is located in the south- eastern
part of Mindanao. As acoastal area, coconut farms are commonly found along with
coastal resorts. Meanwhile, General Santos city is located in the southern Mindanao
and have one of the main international seaports in Mindanao. These sites were cho-
sen giventhe considerably highnumber of PID in those locations. Most PID in the
Sarangani province are working in the coconut farm, while those in the General
Santos City are in the shing industries.
The informants for this research came from different generations, including the
rst to the fourth generation of Indonesian descendants. There are twenty (20) rep-
resentatives in each research location. It included Indonesian citizens, Filipinociti-
zens, and those with undetermined nationality. Based on the conrmation of
citizenship, around 70% of the total informants hold Indonesian citizenship, and
only approximately 30% are Filipino (Philippine citizens). However, when we
asked them to give a proof of their Indonesian national identity cards (KTP/Kartu
Tanda Penduduk), only some could produce them. Most of them still did not possess
citizenship documents, including birth certicates, national ID cards or passports.
Most of the informants also came from the third and fourth generations of PID, aged
30–40, comprising about 60% of the total informants. In addition, there is a signi-
cant difference between the two locations: informants in Sarangani are predomi-
nantly PID born in Indonesia and in General Santos all the informants were born in
the Philippines. The diverse backgrounds of the informants reveal a more compre-
hensive and complex condition of PID in the southern Mindanao.
This research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, the
researchers had to hire local assistants to assist in theinterviews and collect infor-
mation from the local ofcials because of the travel ban andquarantine restric-
tionsin the Philippines. For Sarangani province, there was one assistant, member of
the PID, who helped with the interviews. Meanwhile, three assistants from the
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

98
Mindanao State University did the interviews in General Santos City. This research
used a semi-structured interview.
The analysis for this chapter adapts the works of Takeyuki Tsuda (2006, 2008)
on the idea of local citizenship to interpret its data. His studies found that in the
context of East Asian countries, the local governments subtly grant the fundamental
socio-political rights and services to migrants as legitimate members of their local
communities. His conclusions challenge the traditional approach to citizenship that
posits that citizenship lies on the national level government and the role of local
government is seen as relatively insignicant.
This chapter is organised as follows: the contextual background of PID in the
Philippines and their current citizenship status as introduction. It then moves to the
traditional citizenship approach, which predominantly relies on a legal method.
This section focuses on the exclusion of some communities based on legal citizen-
ship. The subsequent section discusses the alternative to include all communities
through local citizenship. The integration process that has been supported by the
local government in the southern Mindanao is examined in the following section.
Lastly, in conclusion the nal section points to the important role of local govern-
ment in performing citizenship, a topic that stillremains under researched.
6.2 Traditional Citizenship Approach
Citizenship is a complex and complicated term. Tegtmeyer Pak (2006) invokes four
conceptions of citizenship: juridical citizenship which comprises the formal, legal
status of nationals in a given territory; substantive citizenship refers to the civil,
political, and social rights that bind states and societies together; cultural citizenship
underpins the sense of social and cultural belonging in a given polity; and participa-
tory citizenships dwells on the normative function of citizen’s role in public life and
good governance. The traditional citizenship approach is primarily focused on
juridical citizenship.
Turner (1997) denes citizenship as a compilation of rights and responsibilities
that provide a person with legal status and identity, contending that citizenship is
used by the state to control the access of individuals and groups to scarce resources
in society. Moreover, he argues that citizenship is predominantly related to rights
and responsibilities that are managed by the state. According to Villazor (2010,
p.590), “to be a citizen is to possess the legal status of a citizen.” It is argued that
the traditional concept of citizenship concerns the legal status of individuals within
the nation-state and has implications for associated rights and duties. Also, Staples
(2012) contends that the idea of citizenship entails contradictory consequences,
including creating a more signicant gap in access and protection between citizens
and noncitizens.
Bader (1995) believed that citizenship is the equivalent of feudal privilege as a
status inherited from the previous generation. This means that citizenship was cre-
ated to maintain the state legacy. Legal citizenship has positioned citizens as
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

99
subordinate objects, while the state always takes its position as an authority. Similar
to Sadiq (2017) and Naujoks (2020), legal citizenship always sees citizens as the
object to be ruled, while citizens themselves are active subjects who have their own
initiatives and demands in relation to the state.
Consequently, persons who cannot conform with the government rules, includ-
ing undocumented migrants and displaced persons, are considered as noncitizens
and are excluded from being state members (Villazor, 2010). Being noncitizens,
they could not access the basic rights provided by the state. Moreover, Kapur (2007)
and Acciaioli etal. (2017) assert that even if people whose ancestors were migrants
have already long inhabited the host country, they might experience ‘being other’ as
result of the traditional approach of citizenship.
In most Southeast Asian countries, the principle of citizenship is based on jus
sanguinis, meaning “the principle that a person’s nationality is determined on the
basis of the nationality of his or her parents at the time of the person’s birth”
(Waldrauch, 2006, p.121). None of the countries in Southeast Asia applied solely
on the jus soli principle, “the principle that a person’s country of birth determines
his or her nationality” (Waldrauch, 2006, p.128). Unfortunately, the jus sanguinis
principle has become the main cause of the emergence of statelessness, especially
for undocumented migrants because they cannot possess citizenship for themselves
and the same condition will be applied for their children.
Costica Dumbrava (2018) argues that jus sanguinis is problematic, since it his-
torically tainted, inadequate and normatively unnecessary. Using the case in Europe,
he demonstrates how jus sanguinis could not include children from a surrogate
mother and in the case of migrants, the failure to register their children might lead
to statelessness. Dumbrava’s study illustrates how jus sanguinis has widened the
gap between citizens and noncitizens, deepening exclusion among communities
within a state.
The emerging inclusion and exclusion agenda among migrants may lead to dif-
ferentiated and unfair treatment in the host country. The undocumented migrants
become the most vulnerable group to be discriminated against by the host country.
Some of them have experienced living in an unauthorized status, having no social
welfare protections and generally not having health care or disability insurance, and
lack job security (Debrah, 2002; ILO, 2002; Koser, 2007; Dauvergne, 2008; Kaye,
2010). The example of the exclusion of migrants in Southeast Asia can be seen from
the study of Allerton (2014), who discovered some children of migrant workers in
Sabah could not access education because of their legal status.
In addition, Allerton’s study (2017) found that most Malaysians see plantation
migrant workers in Sabah as opportunists and label them as criminals. A similar
situation also can be seen in Japan, where Filipino migrants were also labelled as
dangerous aliens (Herbert, 1996; Shipper, 2008). Herbert (1996, p.245) outlines the
“illegality stigma” that migrants suffer from, made worse by Japanese police’s
“labelling” practices after arrest, lack of legal counsel, and the “pre-denition” of
foreign suspects as “violators of the law”. Migrants are often seen as the object of
public anger and demonised by political elites, which only exacerbates their exclu-
sion and isolation from the local community. However, recognising the high
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

100
mobility of people in the region, Anderson Villa and A. Mani (2013) argue that
ASEAN countries must consider alternative approaches and not just overly depend
on a security/legal approach.
The Philippines is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that also employs jus
sanguinis as the only basic principle of citizenship. It means that if a person has
failed to achieve citizenship in the Philippines, all his/her descendants will remain
stateless for the rest of their lives. The Philippines government recognised ve
groups that are vulnerable or at risk of being stateless, including the unregistered
children, foundlings, children of Filipino descent in migration situations (e.g. the
Middle East and Sabah), PID residing in southern Mindanao, and the Sama-Bajau
population (UNHCR, 2017). Persons of Indonesian descent have become at risk of
being a largely stateless community because they arrived in the Philippines before
independence, they failed to gain Philippine’s citizenship and failed to register their
children’s birth, rendering them undocumented migrants.
6.3 The Idea ofLocal Citizenship
The exclusion and stigmatisation of migrants based on traditional legal citizenship
has triggered more scholars to rethink alternative citizenship approaches that can be
more inclusive for all community members. One of the options to complement the
lack of the traditional approach of citizenship is the idea of local citizenship. This
study denes local citizenship as part of denizenship (Rosbrook-Thompson, 2014),
where the membership is determined by residency (Villazor, 2010,) and the status is
based on relationships, custom and memory (Chipato, 2021).
Using the words of Sassen (2006), local citizenship can be seen an assemblage
of citizenship at the subnational level. Gargiulo (2017) argues that the concept can
be applied through the bestowal of individual rights and statuses of membership at
the municipality level, which are formally recognised as an effect of the authority
that local governments exercise on behalf of the state. As a result of this assemblage,
the local citizen as legal and social subject emerges, and it includes both national
and non-national citizens.
Takeyuki Tsuda (2006) studied local citizenship for skilled migrants in Japan.
Tsuda (2006, p.7) dened local citizenship as “the granting, by local governments
and organisations, of basic socio-political rights and services to immigrants as legit-
imate members of these local communities.” His study found that the local govern-
ment and local NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) in Japan initiated program
to include migrants as part of the community members and offered some supporting
services for their establishment in Japan. Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak (2006) further
discussed the importance of local incorporation programs in the context of Japanese
society. Local incorporation serves to “articulate and promote a vision of citizenship
that includes many persons who do not possess juridical citizenship” (p.20).
The role of local government in Japan in regard to immigration has also been
discussed by Stephen Robert Nagy (2010). Nagy’s studies have further claried that
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

101
in order to address an absence of national/state-level immigration policies, local
governments have started employing their own localized incorporation and social
integration policies for migrants. Nagy also pointed out the major role played by
local governments in terms of service provision as the immediate interface between
foreign residents and the national government through the local government
policies.
Similar studies on the formalisation of local citizenship have also been under-
taken in other continental contexts. Villazor (2010) situated his study in San
Francisco, highlighting its reputation as the safe haven city for migrants. His study
found that the San Francisco local government issued a sanctuary law that initiated
membership of the community based on residency. As a result, all residents in the
city, including undocumented migrants, are effectively considered citizens. Not
only were they entitled to access to theirrights, duties and obligations, but they were
also granted to participate in the local elections to vote. Indeed, as Rosbrook-
Thompson (2014) argued,local citizenship can unite the citizen and noncitizens and
create strong solidarity ties that are greater than legal citizenship status.
However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no country in Southeast Asia that
has formalised local citizenship for migrants. Consequently, local citizenship can be
seen from the performative action between local government and migrants (Chipato,
2021) and the act of belongingness (Rosbrook-Thompson, 2014). Our study found
that the local government units in the southern Philippines were performing local
citizenship for PID, which will be explored further in the next section.
6.4 PID’s Legal Citizenship Status
As mentioned previously, some PID are at the risk of being stateless because they
do not have legal documents. This section draws on the history of grantingcitizen-
ship for PID.It is argued that the legal status of citizenship only serves as a survival
tool to gain access to rights (Kapur, 2007), and this phenomenon is aptly illustrated
by PID.Many Sangirs have come to live permanently on the Philippines’ side of the
border with Indonesia. Both countries, Indonesia and the Philippines, have acknowl-
edged the existence of PID after the independence of their nations.
Recognising the long-term connection and the cross-border tradition among
Sangirs, in 1961, both sides signed the Repatriation and Border Crossing Agreement.
Pristiwanto (2016, p. 43) argues this agreement has categorized many of the
Indonesian descendants in the southern Philippinesinto the following: Indonesian
people living on the Philippine side, Filipinos living on the Indonesian side, Filipino
people who go back and forth across the border without permission and legal docu-
ments, and Indonesian people who go back and forth the border without permission
and legal documents. To further improve this measure, high-level negotiations
between the two countries continued, which nally led to the signing of the
Agreement on the Abolition of Visa Requirements on Certain Casesin 1963.
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

102
Manigbas (2016) contends that in the wake of this agreement, around 1000
Indonesians were repatriated using the Indonesian navy ship Halmahera in 1965.
They were sent to some areas in Northern Sulawesi islands and Northern Maluku.
However, there was no detail on the number and destination location of the PID.One
of the informants said that his parents was among the repatriates and they were
brought to Northern Maluku. They lived there for around 3years and then returned
to the Philippinesthereafter. Thus, we can still nd PID in many areas in the south-
ern Philippines until now.
In May 2011, the Philippines became the rst country in Southeast Asia which
ratied the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. As a
follow-up program, the Philippines government started to map and register all the
stateless groups in the Philippines, including the Persons of Indonesian Descent
(PID) through the Registration and Conrmation of Nationality program. At the
same time, there was a meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation
(JCBC) held in Manila, where both countries agreed to address the problems of
Indonesian descent in the Southern Philippines. The Refugees and Stateless Persons
Unit of the Philippine Department of Justice (RSPPU-DoJ) took on the leading role
in this project, involving the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Public Attorney’s Ofce
(PAO), the Indonesian Consulate in Davao (KJRI Davao) and United Nation High
Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). They assigned a local NGO in General
Santos City, PASALI, to help them communicate this project with all PID.
Finally, after working continuously for around 4years (2012–2016), the data of
PID have been completed and both governments worked together to conrm the
PID’s citizenship. The Bureau of Immigration conducted a nal check of PID in
Mindanao. The PAO provided free legal assistance, including juridical corrections
of entries on the birth certicate. Afterwards, the Indonesian Consulate registered
those PID who opted for Indonesian citizenship. Furthermore, Tanggol (2017)
claims that out of 8,745 PID 2,399 were granted Indonesian citizenship. Then, in
November 2017, the Indonesian Consulate in Davao and the Republic of the
Philippines, together with the UNHCR, distributed hundreds of birth certicates to
the stateless people of Indonesian descendants in several provinces of Mindanao
(Basa, 2018). The data illustrate that only a few of the PID can now be considered
Indonesian citizens, and those persons with undetermined nationality were made
denizens or noncitizens in the southern Philippines (Fig.6.2).
6.5 Local Citizenship Among PID
Despite the noncitizenship status of some PID, the relationship among PID, local
community and local government units (LGUs) in the southern Philippines is rela-
tively harmonious. The relationship can be seen from the access and rights
affordedto the PID from theLGUs in the Sarangani province and General Santos
City. Our study found that the LGUs in both those research sites are responsible to
provide a database for the National Government in the Philippines, in order to
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

103
Fig. 6.2 The map of registration and conrmation of nationality of PID. (Source: UNHCR, 2016)
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

104
effectively facilitate access to some basic rights and assistances. In both areas, we
found that Indonesian citizens and persons with undetermined nationality gained
some basic rights because of the LGU’s role in providing local database using resi-
dence as basisfor access.
One of the basic rights that can be attained is education access. The chart below
shows that almost all of the children of PID with Indonesian citizenship also bene-
ted from educational assistance. In General Santos City, all the PID obtained their
primary education until high school level. Meanwhile, in Sarangani province, only
one person in the study claimed not to be able to access educational facilities. Some
respondents claimed that the Philippine government provided free public elemen-
tary and high school education, as long as they can obtain a recommendation letter
and/or residence certicate from their respective LGUs. In the Philippines, access to
primary education is free for all residents, and the PID are not deprived of such
privileges (Fig.6.3).
Aside from access to education, the PID are also able to readily access health
care services. The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (2014), known as
Philhealth, is a health insurance scheme controlled and managed by the government
for Filipinos and foreigners who live in the Philippines as long as they comply with
some requirements. In those two areas, more than 70% of the informants who hold
Indonesian citizenship beneted from essential health care access from Philhealth.
The ownership of a Philhealth card assures the PID assistance for their health prob-
lems or when they needed health care provision. One informant in Sarangani prov-
ince did not have to pay for her caesarean childbirthdelivery. These health facilities
are indeed advantageous for PID because they can access health care even at the
barangay level (the smallest administrative district formation in the Philippines)
and in advanced-tertiary medical care facilities when needed (Fig.6.4).
However, the provision of health access did not run as smoothly as education
access did. For instance, a father who lived in Sarangani province acquired his
Philhealth card, but his son was unable to get it. The reason was that the district
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
SaranganiGeneral Santos
Yes
No
Fig. 6.3 Access to primary education for PID
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

105
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
SaranganiGeneral Santos
Yes
No
Fig. 6.4 Health access for PID
government required the use of primary documents for validation purposes. He
insisted that he and his father have similar documents written with their citizenship
as Indonesians, but the local government could not give him a satisfactory answer.
Sadly, their unfortunate ordeal continued until the end of 2020. Hence, it can be
argued that the main hindrance in providing fundamental rights and quality health
care are the inconsistencies in data management and policy implementation by
the LGUs.
A similar case can also be observed from the access to the social welfare pro-
grams, including the 4Ps. The Presidential Communications Operations Ofce
(2016) explained that the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” or 4Ps is “a
human development measure of the national government that provides conditional
cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the edu-
cation of children 0–18years old.” There are two elements of the program, namely
health and education grants. The health grant provides 6,000 pesos annually for
every household, and the payments are rolled out every month. Meanwhile, the
educational assistance of 3,000 pesos is delivered for ten months for every child,
and each family is allowed to have a maximum of three children supported by the
program.
However, only a small portion of PID in both areas were able to access these
programs, that is,less than 25% of the total informants in each site. On their web-
site, the 4Ps program is linked with the Commission of Higher Education (CHED)
to ensure deservingstudents benet from this grant and connect with Philhealth as
national health insurance. Some of the recipients may dispute such claims since
education, health and 4Ps program have to be connected using similar data.
Inconsistent data do not only lead to confusion among PID but also misunderstand-
ing among themselves.
Another form of welfare access can also be seen in the COVID-19 pandemic
response in early 2020. At that time, most PID received assistance from the
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

106
Philippine government. Every household received a package of staple foods, includ-
ing 4kilos of rice, some cans of sardines and corned beef, and chicken loaves that
can be accessed every week during the rst two months. The Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE) also prepared nancial assistance of 6,000 pesos for each
person who lost their job. The Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD) allocated 5,000 pesos for each family affected by COVID-19. Perez (2020)
explained that the nancial assistance from DSWD was called the Social
Amelioration Program (SAP) and was based on the Joint Memorandum Circular
No. 1 Series of 2020.
All interviewed PID in Sarangani province and General Santos City received
assistance from the Philippine government and also from the Indonesian govern-
ment at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the informants in
Sarangani province said that he was glad that he got assistance from the Philippine
government, especially after obtaining legal status as an Indonesian citizen. As most
PID work in the informal sector, such as farm labour and shing, they are not spared
from the pandemic crisis. Some of them lost their jobs or could not get regular jobs
as before. Therefore, assistance from the local government has been meaningful for
PID.This chapter conrm with Tsuda’s (2006) study that local citizenship exists
where local governments recognized migrants as legitimate members of the com-
munity, albeit partially through provision of social rights. This research found that
the LGUs offered those rights to PID and positioned them as part of the local
community.
6.6 Integration ofPID
The relationship between migrants (including undocumented or documented
migrants) and the host country has been focused on by various migration scholars,
among them Olson (2007), Horvatich (2003), and Allerton (2017) in the Southeast
Asia context. Horvatich (2003) found that Sama Dilaut people in the southern
Philippines have never been integrated into the Filipino community because of the
view of other local islanders that they do not practise Islam. Meanwhile, Olson
(2007) and Allerton (2017) study the exclusion of undocumented migrants and their
children in the national politics of Sabah, Malaysia. Moreover, they argue that the
problem of migrants is not only about legal identication but also related to regional
belonging.
This study follows Penninx and Garcés-Mascareñas’s (2016) denition of inte-
gration, which is a process of settlement, interaction with the host society, and social
change that follows immigration. According to them, there are three aspects of inte-
gration: legal and political dimensions (e.g., legal residence, citizenship, and voting
rights); the socio-economic dimension (e.g., immigrants’ access to health care, edu-
cation, housing, and the labour market); and cultural-religious aspects. The involve-
ment of the migrants in their communities along those three dimensions can be
interpreted as full integration in the host country.
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

107
The rst two elements of PID’ integration can be seen through the legal and local
citizenship mentioned above. The legal and political dimension of PID is repre-
sented through their legal status in the southern Philippines. Some of them were
granted legal citizenship from Indonesia and the Philippines government, while
someare still considered stateless. In the local context, particularly before the con-
rmation of the nationality program in 2016, that differentiation never existed.
Almost none in the local community treated their neighbours based on their nation-
ality. In many cases, PID were actively participating invoting during the local elec-
tions. The LGUs assist the election commission to register voters regardless of
theirlegal status. It was only after 2016that local and regional ofcials started to be
more aware about this issue after series of coordination from the national govern-
ment, in this case the Bureau of Immigration.
In terms of the socio-economic dimension of integration, as can be seen from the
local citizenship section above, the PID experience some basic rights accorded
to them by the Philippine government, including education, health and welfare
access. The LGUs considers them as part of the community members. This demon-
strates the support from the local government in the southern Philippines in the
integration process for PID.Consequently, the PID also develop strong attachment
with local community in their residency.
A nal dimension of integration can be seen from the cultural and religious
aspect. Penninx and Garcés-Mascareñas (2016) argue that this aspect is the most
problematic for migrants. However, our ndings revealed otherwise, as this can be
considered the easiest part for PID, as they shared similar culture with their local
communities in southern Philippines. The similarity of their culture can be traced
back from their language. The northern Sulawesi islanders use Sangirese as their
local language, while southern Filipinos use Bisaya language with similar words
and patterns. Lobel (2013) reiterated that North Sulawesi, and the southern
Philippines have the same language roots, which he called Greater Central Philippine
languages. Several words have similarities, such as Aku (Sulawesi) and ako (Bisaya),
Anak (Sulawesi) and anak (Bisaya), engkau (Sulawesi), and ikaw (Bisaya). The
similarities in the language made it easier for PID to adjust to their locale.
Besides, PID livelihoods are strongly connected with coconuts, as is the case for
local people in southern Mindanao. The Sarangani province has its Lubi-lubi
Festival every year. The Philippine Department of Tourism (2018) published on
their website that the local government holds this festival to introduce and promote
the utilization of coconut for accessories and home decors and local liquor known
as bahalina. This festival is also known as a dancing festival, where the dancers
have to wear costumes from coconut materials. The North Sulawesi islanders have
migrated to follow coconut harvest season, and their primary income previously
was from copra production, as part of their traditional temporary migration. Another
highlight of cultural similarity is their alcohol drinking habits. The northern
Sulawesi islanders used to drink tuak or palm wine that is similar to bahalina.
In addition, the most distinguishing feature of cultural integration for PID can be
observed in the Tulude Festival. Every year, PID celebrate Tulude as part of their
tradition. Makainas (2018) described Tulude as an acronym for tulung (help), lukade
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

108
(protect), and dendingang (involvement). In general, Tulude involves an apotropaic
ritual to ask for support and protection from God from any threats and danger and
topray forblessings of their activities. This ritual was performed annually during
the last day of December, but after 1995 the ceremony was moved to the 31st of
January, upon the conrmation of Sangihe and Talaud districts. The Consulate
General of Indonesia in Davao City also supported the annual ritual performance of
Tulude, which still runs until today. In the 2019 celebration, the festival was attended
by the Indonesian Consul General and his staff members, together with the local
Municipal Mayor, LGU ofcials, staff and community members.
Furthermore, the LGUs also often permitted the PID to celebrate their culture
and tradition in the Philippines. Usually, the PID celebrate Indonesian Independence
Day at the Indonesian Consulate General Ofce in Davao City. However, due to
restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine local govern-
ment only allowed the PID to celebrate the Indonesian Independence Day in their
respective localities, where they held the annual ag-raising ceremony.
With regard to their religious practices, the PID are well incorporated within the
local community. Since 1958, there was an exchange program between the
Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) and the United Church of Christ in the
Philippines (UCCP). The PGI sent a priest to the southern Philippines to teach PID
to read and translate Bible in the Sangir language. Most of the PID are Christian,
and they share the church with the local community. One of the priests in General
Santos City said that he has a mixed congregation of Filipinos and Indonesians.
When the church holds religious event, he usually asks permission from the LGUs,
and the municipality always supports all their activities. Therefore, in terms of reli-
gious practices, the PID do not have any complicated problem.
6.7 Conclusion
This chapter has attempted to revisit the contention that the traditional approach of
citizenship is the only solution to include the undocumented migrants, particu-
larlythose who have already resided in the host country for some generations. The
granting of legal citizenship for PID could be seen as an achievement from the
national government perspective, while at the local level, it is only treated as a sur-
vival tool to help PID gain accessible basic rights in the Philippines. The traditional
approach of citizenship always leaves space for the exclusion of some groups of
migrants.
This study has endeavoured to unpack the idea of local citizenship as an alterna-
tive solution allowing excluded migrants to be more integrated into the host country.
The provision of some basic rights and the support from the local government units
in the Philippines based on local residency offers an oasis for PID, some of whom
are in the state of having undetermined nationality and being treated as aliens (i.e.,
Indonesian citizens). Local residency and shared cultural connections have become
the basis for local citizenship to be practiced in the southern Philippines.
A. V. Villa and A. Wiratri

109
Tsuda’s (2006) conclusions on the critical roles of local governments in the inte-
gration of migrants are obviously relevant in analysing these communities, albeit in
this context lacking support from NGOs, civil society groups, and activist associa-
tions. More apparently, the LGUs provided a population database that can support
PID’s access to the fundamental rights to education, health and welfare at the indi-
vidual level. At the organizational level, LGUs demonstrated provision of equal
access for PID as member of the community. In this context, the Philippine local
government has demonstrated a relatively advance practice of local citizenship in
creating an inclusive environment for migrants in theirrespective jurisdiction.
This chapter points to more productive insights in understanding integration
between migrants and the host country. The ndings of this study reveal the vital
role of LGUs in the integration process including legal, social-economic and cul-
tural dimensions. The study also illustrates that the cultural dimension has become
one of the main assets for accelerating the integration process of PID with the local
communities, including LGUs. This can be seen through the similarities in culture,
language, and religion, which Penninx and Garcés-Mascareñas (2016) argue as the
most complex dimension for migrants to be fully integrated. These results also
establish why local citizenship can possibly providesolution for theinclusion of
PID within the community in southern Philippines since they have strong cultural
ties and attachment.
The analysis of the integration and local citizenship should not be plainly reduced
to simplistic exclusion and inclusion considerations. Rather, our study shows how
to assist more scholars in challenging exclusive reliance on the traditional concept
ofcitizenship, which largely rely onthe legal status of migrants. Hence,citizenship
should not always be seen from the ‘top’ but can alsobe studied from ‘below’. The
performance of citizenship at the local level is an insightful space in the relationship
between migrants and the local community. This act also offers a haven for migrants
that moved beyond their complex relationship with the national level government
and their immigration laws.
On a nal note, the researchers are fully aware that this study could not solely
and entirely represent the general situation of PID in the Philippines as the number
of informants is relatively small. The limited locale of study for this research might
not signicantly present a total picture of local citizenship and integration of all
PID.Future studies on the integration of diasporic communities at the state level
through national policies remain necessary, as this study presents a complementary
perspective rather than a replacement for other approaches. It is also valuable to
explore the relationship between state and migrants and other stakeholders at the
different levels of public policy analysis covering issues related to social protection,
social welfare, and human rights.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank Dr. Greg Acciaioli, Dr. Riwanto Tirtosudarmo,
Dr. Christoph Sperfeldt,and Dr. Ahmad Helmy Fuady for reviewing the earlier version of this
chapter. The researchers are also grateful of the technical support of Mindanao State University-
General Santos Citythrough its Ofce of International Affairs and the Ofce of the Vice Chancellor
for Research and Extension in accepting Ms. Amorisa Wiratri as its rst ever Remote Visiting
Researcher during the pandemictimes.
6 Rethinking Local Citizenship and Integration of Persons of Indonesian Descent…

110
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Anderson V. Villa is Professor of Political Science at the College of Social Sciences and
Humanities of Mindanao State University–General Santos City (MSU- GSC). He obtained his
Ph.D. at the Ritsumeikan Asian Pacic University (APU) in Japan, graduate degree at the De La
Salle University-Manila and undergraduate degreeat the Ateneo de Davao University. Dr. Villa
was Visiting Scholar at Hoover Institution, Stanford University in California, USA (2018 Silas
Palmer Research Support Program). His research interests include contemporary migration and
public policies, migration history and citizenship studies, Asian and Japan Studies.
Amorisa Wiratri is Researcher at the Research Centre for Area Studies, National Research and
Innovation Agency, Indonesia. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from the Cultural Anthropology
Department at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia and graduated from Women’s Studies at
Flinders University, Adelaide for her master’s degree. Currently, she is nishing her Ph.D. in
Anthropology and Sociology Department, University of Western Australia. Her research interests
are related to migration, ethnicity, diaspora, citizenship, and borderstudies.
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