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In Indonesia the idea of resettlement from densely populated Java to the outer islands, which is now known as transmigration, dates back to Sir Thomas Raffles who first suggested it in 1814. The idea was taken up again by van Deventer in 1899 when he included it in his formula for development:“education, irrigation, and emigration”(Pelzer 1945: 19 1). In 1905 the first government-sponsored migration scheme was initiated by the Dutch colonial government which termed it a “colonization” program. After independence the government of Indonesia developed its own “colonization program” but called it “transmigration.” The transmigration policy had multiple purposes: I) to relieve population pressure in Java, 2) to secure economic development in the outer islands, 3) to secure and defend the marginal regions of the nation, and 4) to increase cultural assimilation, political integration, and economic consolidation to the …