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| University of Muhammadiyah Malang students. (Photo: Rino Public Relations) |
The data records that there will be 330 thousand students flooding the city of Malang in the new academic year 2022/2023. 10,000 of them are UMM's new students. Some people feel that the arrival of these new students has a negative impact in the form of increasing congestion and increasing population density in Malang. However, Dr. Wahyudi, M.Si, is a sociology lecturer at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). According to him, the arrival of thousands of students also had a good impact on the people of Malang.
Wahyudi said that several factors attract young people to migrate to Malang. First is the availability of credible educational institutions to increase knowledge. The second is the tourism sector which is mushrooming in Malang and Batu Regency.
“The arrival of students from outside Malang also makes the people of Malang have a high tolerance for new cultures and values. This makes the city of Malang a melting pot or a melting pot of various values and cultures. The readiness of citizens to accept migrants is also seen from the increase in existing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), "said the lecturer from Central Java.
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Furthermore, Wahyudi said that it is undeniable that negative impacts such as traffic jams will indeed increase with the increase in the number of migrants in Malang. But that will only happen at certain hours. The positive thing that will accompany this increase in immigrants is the development and renewal of public infrastructure for the better. This will be beneficial for the people of Malang.
“Population growth always brings positive and negative impacts. However, the public need not worry because the negative impacts are smaller than the positive effects obtained. In addition, the social structure of the Malang people has also been formed in dealing with various threats, such as crime and social irregularities,” said the lecturer who was born in 1964.
On the other hand, a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Setyo Wahyu Sulistyono, S.E., M.E, explained that population mobility will move minor economic communities around campus such as food stalls, photocopying, and boarding houses. In addition, another impact that will occur is an increase in social entrepreneurs in the community.
“It is undeniable that the education industry in Malang has a big influence in moving the wheels of the community's economy. This is also a means of improving the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic attacked Indonesia," said the lecturer from East Aceh.
Although it has many positive impacts, there are still negative impacts of this population mobility on the community's economy. One of them is the increase in the basic price of products and services in Malang. This can happen because, with the increase in population, the demand for goods and services also increases, while the available supply in the community is limited.
“The customs and culture of the immigrants also affect the prices in Malang. For example, people in big cities who are used to living with Air conditioners will look for a boarding house that has these facilities. The addition of this facility will increase the cost of the boarding house which was initially around 600,000 per month to 1,000,000. Over time, this increase will be considered as the standard price of a boarding house,” he concluded. (*shi/wil)
