This study attempts to examine the major socioeconomic characteristics and the composition of peri-urban communities, and explains the determinants of intrametropolitan mobility associated with peri-urban growth in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the first part of the analysis, the findings suggest that most of peri-urban residents are migrants involved in intra-metropolitan mobility. Peri-urban migrants are usually selected from the better socioeconomic status than peri-urban nonmigrants and urban in-migrants in general. Among the six socioeconomic variables examined in this study, education, occupational status, and income seem to have had significant influence on the different orientation between peri-urban migrants and urban in-migrants in general.

In the second part of the analysis, the findings suggest that the classical pull-push hypotheses and the concepts of income differentials between places provide inadequate explanation to the process of intra-metropolitan mobility. This study has shown that in the process of intra-metropolitan mobility associated with peri-urban growth, economic explanations in terms of labor movement are less explanatory than social and behavioral explanations. From the distinction between strategies adopted by households in their moving decisions, a conclusion was drawn that intra-metropolitan mobility is largely a process of social status enhancements or upward mobility.

The analysis also conclude that the process of intra-metropolitan mobility associated with peri-urban growth in Jakarta may be partially explained by the macro structural changes in the metropolitan economy as the result of larger changes in the global economy over the last ten years. Dramatic changes in land utilization and values in Jakarta may reflect advanced capitalist system that characterizes the recent urban development process in Jakarta.

Finally, this paper suggest that further research on peri-urban growth in Jakarta is needed. The research should be designed and directed toward a larger coverage and a more comprehensive analysis of micro as well as macro data on social, political, economic, and behavioral aspects of the population. This research is essential in order to formulate appropriate policies aimed at obtaining balanced distribution between resources and investments, on the one hand, and the population on the other.