Indonesia faces brain drain as skilled graduates leave for jobs abroad

JAKARTA – Indonesia has seen an increasing outflow of skilled young adults seeking work abroad in a brain drain phenomenon experts attribute to concern around job opportunities within the country.

Twenty-five-year-old political science graduate Fikri Haikal obtained a working holiday visa (WHV) in Australia and now makes a living as a poultry factory worker.

“I never thought I would be a factory worker,” he said, explaining that his original plan was to go abroad for higher education, but he failed to get a scholarship, and peer influence then convinced him to join the WHV programme instead.

He searched and applied for jobs in Indonesia, Mr Fikri said, but received no job offers.

“Meanwhile, in Australia, securing a job is easy, because there is a shortage of labour in certain sectors, such as in manufacturing,” he told The Jakarta Post on May 23.

Indonesians are the largest citizenship group in Australia’s WHV programme, with the number of granted visas surging from 2,984 in the 2022-2023 period to 4,285 in 2023-2024, according to the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

On social media, graduates and young professionals have been sharing their experiences with the WHV programme, citing better pay and quality of life, though some caution that “it is not as easy as it looks”.

Frustrated jobseekers

The hashtag #KaburAjaDulu (Just get out first) has been gaining traction on social media in 2025, as frustration and pessimism mount over Indonesia’s economic situation and work conditions, encouraging people to seek better jobs abroad.

The blue-collar job in Australia provides Mr Fikri with a salary exceeding his living costs, in addition to access to public facilities and a diverse sociocultural experience.

On the other side of the globe, Ms Viona Maharani, a graduate from a vocational tourism college in Bali, is interning in the hospitality