Media coverage of a shelter for abandoned children in Indonesia: A feminist critical discourse analysis of the representation of female migrant workers

Amidst the research and public discourse on the problems of female migrant workers (especially domestic workers), the phenomenon of unwanted children born as a result of rape or unplanned pregnancies has received little attention. In Indonesia, many such babies have been found abandoned at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport. In response to this need in January 2009, two charitable organizations Yayasan Putri Cikeas and Gerakan Nasional Kepedulian Sosial (GNKS) and a government agency The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (Badan Nasional Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia, or BNP2TKI) cooperatively established a temporary shelter named Rumah Peduli Anak TKI (RPA TKI) for these newborns. Indonesian television stations have devoted considerable news coverage to this shelter, and some videos on its activities can be found on YouTube, resulting in donations and offers to adopt the abandoned babies. However, its representation of the mothers is problematic. This study aims to understand how RPA TKI is represented in the media to suggest that the representation fails to provide a comprehensive understanding of unwanted children and their migrant mothers.Applying feminist critical discourse analysis, I found that some aspects of the coverage reinforce undesirable stereotypes and even re-victimize the female migrant workers who became the unwilling mothers of these children. Findings indicate that Indonesian media often lacks gender perspective when covering female migration and its uninvited outcomes. This research will serve as a base for future studies on the representation of female migrant workers in Indonesian media.