In the perspective of migrant women, overseas migration is still viewed as an effective means of social mobility. Through migration, they build their dreams and want to be perceived as successful people. Therefore, every effort will be made to achieve this goal although they have to leave the values of family and community.
According to the lecturer in Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, Setiadi, S. Sos., M. Hum., the most important finding from the case of overseas migration is the increased earnings of women as workers and breadwinners in the family. This condition has increased their confidence and bargaining position in the family and household. Individually, migrant women feel to have more autonomy in life than before going overseas. In fact, some migrant families experience quite fundamental changes of values, such as the husband's social position that is no longer an important figure in the family.
Setiadi’s research proved that the migration of women drives these cultural value changes so that the cultural values in society seem to be quite dynamic. In this study, it seems clear that the change of meaning of the phenomenon of migration, especially for material success, is an important determinant for the dynamics of migrant women to return. "The migration of women as foreign workers has brought many exciting changes and these changes occur not only on the material and social levels but also at the level of value, both in the migrant women themselves and on the couple and society in general," said Setiadi at the Margono Djojohadikusumo Auditorium on Tuesday (28/9), when he was sitting for an open examination of Anthropology Science Doctoral Program.
The research result of personal life, household, and society on migrant women who return home are related to the dynamics of autonomy while the role of accumulated material indicates the close links between the accumulation of material with the women's socio-psychological condition, especially the attitude of confidence and level of autonomy on private life and the role and status of women in the household. "This condition, however, does not appear in the level of public life. Progress on the quality of migrants and the role of status in domestic life can occur due to migration of women that creates a new meaning of migration and a variety of positive impacts, particularly related to the material aspect," the man born on May 25, 1970, explained.
In the dissertation entitled "Dynamics of the Village Women's Autonomy: an Anthropology Study on Impact of International Migration in Javanese Rural Areas, Setiadi revealed the dynamics of migrant women's autonomy in various levels can occur along with the shift of meaning among most people that is related with the position of the materials in the social relation process. The shift mentioned is the strong orientation on material values among society that becomes a strong cultural value which underlies the action pattern of members of migrant family .