Surviving the Sambas Conflict: Gender Relations in the Context of Resettlement in West Kalimantan

Using a gender approach to bargaining power, this study illustrates how Madurese couples that were evicted from Sambas are adjusting to the new environment, and processes in which gender relations are altered. The couples' main concerns on decision making were related to the migration patterns during the post-Sambas conflict, the allocation of household labor, and the allocation of money after they resettled in Pontianak. The findings show that a woman from a well to do household has higher power to influence her husband, because it is the middle and upper class households that seem to hold on to the kinship ideology of matrilocal living arrangements. Mixed marriages with the Javanese seem to offer more flexible living arrangements, which also provide more space for the women to bargain. As time passes, decisions on migration patterns shift from merely trying to find a place to run for safety to destinations that can also provide suitable income.