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Double Job Double Risk:
Commodification of Life Content Syfa Amelia1 .
Elisabeth Adventa Galuh2 Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta.
Indonesia Gadjah Mada University.
Indonesia E-mail : syfaamelia@upnvj.
Article History:
Received: 30 Desember 2025 Revised: 05 Januari 2026 Accepted: 13 Januari 2026 Keywords: migrant workers, welfare, social media, content Abstract: Indonesian migrant workers currently have a new trend as part-timer content creators in social media, documenting their life and making videos or live videos about their life in a new country.
This is common thing between the diaspora to document their lives in a different country, but there is a gap that differentiates between diaspora or white-collar immigrants from Indonesian migrant workers who commonly work as unskilled laborers.
As we already know how policies that protect immigrants do not really work because of the high case of immigrant abuse, intimidation, persecution, low welfare, etc.
Immigrants seeing the potential of being content creators in social media will give them better welfare and life quality when actually they become new commodities by creating content about their life.
Using Pierre Bourdieu theory of modal commodification, we conduct exploratory research to investigate problems about commodification content that is not clearly defined.
The first step we do is doing observations of migrant workers content creators and then we do online research and literature research to strengthen our research on a specific case that is Zhiee Leely and Maybe Memeyon Youtube.
The results show us that Indonesian migrants worker are unconsciously being commodified in a habitus that leads them to get
financial modal by-product daily content on Youtube and it is mean they need to do a double job, longer
working hours, more risks, without government social security because only being migrants worker
for them did not guarantee them better life better
INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is a country with a large number of migrant workers and is one of the sectors that underpin the country's economy.
Indonesia is a country with the second largest number of a.
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The causal factor is of course supported by the globalization factor which has facilitated the ease and policies of migration in Indonesia since the reform era.
Even though it has the second largest number of migrant workers, it does not mean that all Indonesian migrant workers are guaranteed their welfare and are ensured to live safely overseas.
Many of the PMIs who still have to live are concerned or rack their brains to get jobs with more decent wages to support themselves and their families at home.
Following the trend of the digital era, not a few migrant workers have followed the trend of becoming content creators and creating content about the lives of migrant workers abroad.
This offers many novelties such as a new and foreign environment for most Indonesian viewers so they can get a large number of views.
The platform used initially was Youtube, then it grew here with TikTok.
Globalization has long been mentioned as a contributing factor that causes the free movement of people.
In fact, mobilization with freedom is wanted by many as a compelling reason for them to seek a better life anywhere outside their country of origin2.
Even so, globalization faces many challenges, one of which is migration causing social inequality to cross and beyond national boundaries.
Of the many global mobility regimes, migrant workers and international travelers are the two groups that are most involved in the problem of social 3 (Koslowski, 2.
Martyn mentioned in his research on the voices of Indonesian migrant workers that policies in Indonesia have contributed to the high number of migrant workers from Indonesia.
During the reformation era when Indonesia was experiencing an economic crisis after President Suharto stepped down and the country suffered losses everywhere, poor people suddenly appeared in large numbers, while many human resources, especially those in the regions, did not have the luxury to get access to education and good worker skills, making it more difficult for them to get jobs in the midst of a crisis.
For this reason, the state has made a policy to encourage sending migrant workers from Indonesia to other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore to work in the domestic sphere, such as ART which does not require special skills.
In addition, every dollar that PMIs earn abroad will have an exchange rate that strengthens the rupiah when they are taken home4 (Martyn, 2.
In the meeting between Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim and Jokowi, it was stated that Anwar Ibrahim would continue to fight for the protection and level of welfare of PMI in Malaysia.
Although the graph of the number of PMI complaints and the PMI death rate in Malaysia has decreased in recent years5, it does not mean that the focus on overseeing the issue of PMI must also decrease or even disappear.
Indonesian Migrant Workers The number of migrant workers in the world is high, so the problem of migrant workers must be of particular concern.
The OECD and the United Nations conducted research showing that there are approximately 232 million international immigrants living in countries other than their country of origin and the number has been relatively stable over the past few decades, namely 3.
2% of the world's population.
The Asia Pacific region (IOM 2.
(Deng.
Wahyuni, and Yulianto 2.
(Koslowski 2011, ) (Martyn 2.
(Arief 2.
(AuMigration facts and figuresA.
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India, and Indonesia is the largest source of immigrants.
In 2010, there were 27.
5 million international immigrants in Asia and the Asia Pacific, most of whom came from India.
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam as the destination countries, namely Japan.
Korea.
Hong Kong.
Singapore, and China which provided employment opportunities and higher income than in their home In 2013, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that there were 30 million migrant workers in the region, with 42% of immigrant women in Asia and 50% in Oceania.
These workers leave their countries to earn a better life for their families as documented or undocumented immigrants.
In the Asia-Pacific region, a significant majority of immigrants are illegal and undocumented immigrants.
In Thailand, 1 million immigrants are citizens of neighboring Myanmar.
Cambodia, and Laos, half of which are illegal and undocumented.
In 2020.
Indonesia has 1.
8 million registered immigrants in Malaysia and an estimated number of unregistered immigrants9.
Nonetheless, migrant workers contribute greatly to their country's economy.
In the Philippines, accounting for 12% of their GDP in 2009 came from migrant workers, while in Nepal it reached 22%.
In the Asia-Pacific region, economic changes are also supporting rapid urbanization and the effects are creating many health issues10.
Migrant workers often work in the most undesirable sectors with high risks related to work accidents.
They are seen as commodities and short-term labor investments and are not given massive training and instructions on occupational safety and health11.
In China, migrant workers have a higher chance of being injured at work, but there is no systematic collection of statistics on cases across the region.
There have been many reports of exploitation and violence, including long working hours, unpaid work, and even physical abuse such as beatings, rape, starvation, and forced confinement.
This is explained in market theory dual labor by Michael Piore .
in which Piore explains that the structure of the modern labor market in developed countries has been hereditary oriented to the needs of migrant workers.
The dual labor market is meant by dividing it into two categories, namely the primary sector which is dominated by nonimmigrant workers with its characteristics, namely reasonable wages and multilevel job The secondary sector is dominated by migrant workers and suffers from poor wages and sub-optimal conditions for safe work and jobs that do not provide opportunities for processing .
Currently.
Piore's theory is being criticized because it is considered to oversimplify the employment sector into two types, namely primary and This theory was developed to not only be classified into two dual sectors but to focus more on segmented jobs.
(AuMigration in Asia and the Pacific | IOM.
UN MigrationAy, n.
(Hugo 2014, 998-1.
(Marin 2013, 2-5 ) (Mou.
Fong, and Dawes 2.
(Corvalan.
Driscoll, and Harrison 1994, 364-.
(Fitzgerald et al.
2013, 348-.
(Hugo 2014, 998-1.
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Januari 2026 In the case of Malaysia, immigrant workers receive a negative stigma and are even represented in the media14.
KhosraviNik explained that this was due to ideological polarization between "us" and "them" with "them" being perceived as a threat to other This anti-immigrant view is related to state sovereignty and border control.
cases of illegal or undocumented immigrants, they have two implications: first, they receive discriminatory treatment from fellow illegal immigrants and are vulnerable to raids, arrest, imprisonment, and deportation by security and immigration officials.
Second, because of their illegal status in Malaysia, they will not get the opportunity or integration into the local community.
Youtube as Prosumer Media The concept of "prosumer" was first put forward by Alvin Toffler, a businessman, and writer from the United States.
Toffler offers wavefront analysis, an analytical concept that is able to help understand the force factors behind various changes that occur in society as a whole.
Wavefront analysis divides the series of changes in society into 3 waves, the first wave, the second wave, and the third wave.
The analysis looks at history as a series of rolling waves of change and asks where the leading edge of each wave of change is.
the waves carry us16.
In his work entitled The Third Wave .
Toffler introduced the idea of AU AU the prosumer, which stands for producer and consumer.
The idea is a progressive blurring line that separates the roles of producer and consumer.
According to Toffler.
Third Wave civilization influenced all areas of people's lives.
There are many things in this emerging civilization that contradict the old traditional industrial civilization.
The potential for change in the Third Wave has far-reaching impacts on people's lives and its own logic is at odds with the logic of industrial civilization.
At the same time.
Third Wave civilizations were technologically advanced and anti-industrial.
Third Wave civilization began to AucureAy the historical breaches between producers and consumers that occurred in the Second Wave civilization, giving rise to the AuprosumerAy economy of the future (Toffler, 1.
Toffler is optimistic that with Third Wave civilizations, he thinks the civilization we live in today could turn into the first truly human civilization in recorded history.
This optimism is rooted in the dynamics of the Third Wave which forced political and economic systems to change, to become more democratic and less bureaucratic, to provide more space for individual autonomy and at the same time be more effective.
In media studies, the concept of prosumer was also adopted by Henry Jenkins to define media convergence.
Jenkins and Mark Deuze .
concluded that convergence has the ability to empower the prosumer generation.
Advances in technology with all its connectivity have made the communication climate more participatory.
Audience position becomes horizontal and actively involved in information exchange17.
George Ritzer18 Defining prosumer as a term for people's production and consumption activities in the digital era will later lead to horizontal and simultaneous sharing of information.
(Don and Lee 2014, 687-.
(KhosraviNik 2009, 477-.
(Toffler 1980, .
(Jenkins 2004, .
n Gane & Beer 2008, .
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However, both of them considered their arguments to be able to counterbalance the aspects of top-down and bottom-up Sometimes these two forces .
roducers and prosumer.
reinforce each other, creating a closer, more fruitful relationship between media producers and consumers.
times the two forces come into conflict, resulting in a continual re-negotiation of power between currents of competitive pressures on the new media ecology19.
Apart from bringing new challenges, the era of media convergence also brings new opportunities for the technology-based media industry.
The emergence of digital media platforms, including Youtube, is a sign that the visual and audio needs of media users can still be accommodated.
Youtube users in Indonesia have continued to increase in recent years, playing a major role in increasing the popularity of this video-based Based on the We Are Social report.
YouTube has penetrated 127 million users in Indonesia, and YouTube's market share in Indonesia has reached 21.
42% as of April 2022, the second highest after Facebook.
Youtube places its users in three positions, namely as content producers .
ontent creator consumers, or both prosumer.
The ease of access offered by Youtube allows everyone to create their own content, even if they are not professionals.
GiddensAo Structuration.
Theory Of Capital, and Commodification The concept of structuration emerged because of Anthony Giddens' criticism of the theory of functionalism and evolutionary theory.
The structuring offered by Giddens emphasizes the importance of social practice, both in action and in structure.
Social practices are understood as the correspondence between speech and action, or between significance and action20.
The most important thing in structuration theory lies in how a structure is produced and reproduced by social agents .
through various actions.
There is a dialectical relationship between structure and action because each action contributes to the process of reproduction of structure, as well as an act of construction as an intentional effort to initiate the change of the structure itself along with the process of reproduction (Giddens, 2.
Thus, in general, it can be said that Giddens focuses attention on the dialectical process in which social practices, structures, and consciousness are created21.
Giddens22 agents will monitor their own thinking and activities as well as their own social and physical context on a continual basis.
Meanwhile, actors will rationalize, reflect, and motivate themselves to feel safe and face life more efficiently.
The actor will stop being an agent if he loses power, namely the ability to create conflict even though the structure still provides coercion or constraints.
Then agency according to Giddens23 is the structural conditions in which human actions are realized.
In other words, whatever happens, will not affect the structure if the individual does not interfere with it.
Giddens' structuration theory is further supported by advanced concepts formulated by Pierre Bourdieu regarding habitus, the theory of capital, and symbolic .
n Jenkins & Deuze 2008, .
(Abercrombie.
Hill.
Turner 2.
(Ritzer 2004, .
n Ritzer 2004, 509-.
n Jones 2.
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According to him, habitus is a combination of objective structure and personal history that lasts a long time and changes, positioned as a generative basis for structured practices.
Just like Giddens who focuses on awareness and reflectivity to find out how agents participate or how agents "act" in the context of social life25.
Bourdieu's habitus concept also focuses on the reflective results of various sociocultural values, from the internalization of social structures, and is a historical product that is formed after humans are born and interact with society in a certain time and space.
Habitus is also the result of learning through parenting and interaction/socialization in society, the learning process penetrates very subtly, unconsciously, and appears as a natural thing27.
In Bourdieu's view, individuals are not completely free agents, nor are they passive products of social structures that influence each other in an arena28.
addition to habitus, the concept of the arena has an important role in shaping the practices or actions of agents.
The arena in Bourdieu's concept is a space where social actors/agents compete with each other for various resources, in the form of material or symbolic power.
Competition is what is used as a source of symbolic power29.
To obtain a source of power, social agents/actors require capital or capital in the According to Bourdieu, economic understanding has narrowed the meaning of capital, thus forming a wrong understanding.
So far, capital has always led to an economy that is only measured by money.
Bourdieu30 divides the capital into 4 types, namely economic capital, social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital.
Economic capital is one of the most influential material capital, such as money, property, investment, and so Social capital is in the form of social relations within a certain community or often called connections.
The owners of the largest social capital are those with the widest network of social relations among others.
Furthermore, cultural capital is one of the capitals that have the potential to be converted into money and prestige in terms of And lastly, symbolic capital is the only formless capital, not easily accepted by logic and knowledge, but can be converted into three other forms of capital.
In the view of political economy, capital has a very central role.
Political economy prioritizes the goal of understanding social change and historical transformation by focusing attention on how capitalist control, support for capitalist control, and commercial support of the media tend to serve elite interests which are not only anathema to society but also to democratic values.
The part of political economy used by researchers in this article is commodification.
Vincent Mosco .
9: .
defines commodification as a process of transforming use values AU AU into exchange values.
Mosco is of the view that commodities are no longer only determined based on market needs, but more emphasis is placed on what aspects can be sold on the market.
(Lubis 2.
(Ritzer & Goodman 2004, .
(Takwin 2.
(Saifudin 2.
(Lubis 2.
n Harker, et al 2.
(McChesney, 1.
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Currently, society is in an era where jobs are bought and sold freely as "labor" and market prices are changed like "wages".
As a consequence, through the market mechanism, workers have the opportunity to be converted into tradable commodities.
Mosco .
explains that commodification occurs through the production process, in which capitalists buy commodities, labor force, and means of production to produce a surplus value that can be used to accumulate even greater capital.
Along with the ongoing development of capital, there is a process of The commodity labor is reproduced through a process of absolute exploitation through the addition of working hours and relatives when viewed from the intensification of the labor process which will ultimately increase the acquisition of exchange value for the capitalist.
Karl Marx34 revealed that there are 5 dimensions that indicate that a worker experiences commodification.
These dimensions can be experienced in stages or can even take place at the same time by the worker.
The five dimensions are exploitation, reification, alienation, mystification, and naturalization.
Alienation is understood as a form of alienation of workers in their own work after experiencing a number of forms of Reification is the process of degenerating the whole human dimension into mere objects.
So humans lose their identity as agents for themselves because of diminishing creativity.
Furthermore, mystification occurs when commodities are released from the workers who produce them.
The process of commodity exchange is usually enriched with certain meanings which are more than just use values.
And naturalization is an assumption or an industrial effort to assume that everything that is done is normal and Indeed, such is the relationship between the owners of capital and labor.
The result of naturalization is acceptance of this exploitative relationship.
Sennett .
7: .
argues that currently, various industrial sectors are running the new capitalism, including the media industry.
In the new capitalism, there is a cultural form that is considered ideal, namely short-term logic which suggests that one should think in the short term in order to be successful.
Short-term logic demands a fast, instant, and not-too-late process.
Such a culture places the media industry in a dilemma.
On the one hand, media idealism demands various roles, as a means of education.
However, economic pragmatism forces the media to adopt a short-term logic that only focuses on spectacular, sensational, superficial, and various messages.
In practice, the media industry cannot be separated from capitalist maneuvers and short-term logic.
Money market capitalism is concerned with short-term performance, capital circulation, and fast economic transactions at the global level.
METHODS
This study uses an exploratory study in which researchers seek data by conducting literature studies and analyzing content to be explored further.
In this study, researchers analyzed YouTube content from YouTubers Zhieey Leely and Mboke Memey as well as several YouTube .
n Shields & Grant 2010, .
(Moscow 2009, .
n Poespowardojo & Seran 2.
(Haryatmoko 2007, .
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Development of Indonesian Migrant Workers' Personal Accounts on Youtube Indonesian migrant workers started an explosion of trends as YouTubers roughly starting in 2017 when a TKI in Korea named Bajindul managed to get attention and subscribers on his YouTube when he made funny and innocent content about his life as a migrant worker in South Korea.
His real name is Parindra Sidik Cahyono36.
With his Javanese accent that is still fluent.
Bajindul creates various content such as interacting with native Koreans and this is considered funny by the audience and attracts attention.
Armed with his high school diploma from East Java.
Bajindul, who works as a laborer in a furniture factory, often uploads videos of his daily life in Korea, such as when he is working in a furniture factory or on a farm.
His video when he was walking in Seoul Land has been booming and watched by thousands of people.
Bajindul admitted that he had no special knowledge about vloggers, he only knew there was Youtube and tried it.
Jindul's success in 2017 inspired other migrant workers to start their own YouTube channels.
For example, there is Zhiey Leely who is also a migrant worker in South Korea.
Zhiee Leely is a YouTube account owned by a husband and wife team of PMI workers who are often called Sister Zhi.
Both of them migrated to South Korea 5 years ago through the G to G program managed by BP2MI or formerly known as BP2TKI.
Kak Zhi's YouTube content started 5 years ago when he initially shared videos about how to prepare to become a PMI in South Korea, then he explained tips on how to become proficient in Korean quickly.
Zhiee Leely's Youtube content then grew rapidly and regularly posts videos about their daily lives in South Korea.
Conveniently.
Kak Zhi's videos are grouped into 5 categories, namely content at work, mukbang content or eating in large portions, challenges from viewers, travel content, and shopping content which is usually done in markets, minimarkets, supermarkets, and roadside vendors.
Another name that have successfully earned money from Youtube as migrant workers are Nikmatul Rosidah, who now has 1.
4 million subscribers.
Nikmatul Rosidah, who initially worked in Hong Kong, is now a housewife with a foreigner's wife and has 3 children and is still active on her YouTube channel to share her daily life and recipes for various foods.
Isa Yang, a migrant worker in Taiwan as a household assistant, has more than 463 thousand subscribers and gets a silver play button from YouTube.
Isa's content often invites her employers and family to appear on her YouTube.
There is Nindi Yusinta who is also a migrant worker in South Korea.
He often displays his daily life and mukbang or eating vlogs.
Nindi now has 25 thousand subscribers.
Sugeng Azka.
Alman Mulyana, and Arif Muhammad did not forget to join the ranks of migrant workers who have successfully opened a YouTube channel as their second job.
Arif Muhammad started his vlogger career when he became a migrant worker in Dubai as a hotel keeper.
There he started documenting his daily activities as vlog content, although Arif Muhammad only found success when he returned to Indonesia and made a play as Mak Betty on his YouTube account.
The development of YouTube accounts owned by migrant workers is inseparable from how the media has framed them as people who have succeeded and reaped success (Tashandra 2.
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Zhieey Leely managed to build a 3-story house and buy a new car and own a large farm in his hometown.
Bajindul, from his channel called Gokil Abis, manages to own a house worth 1 billion and a shop for agricultural materials as well as for renting agricultural equipment and pick-up cars.
This success, which is continuously highlighted by the media, has made the audience, especially other migrant workers, "inspired" to open a similar YouTube channel so that the trend of YouTubers for migrant workers has occurred.
The criticism here is that not everyone can get the same opportunity for success as they do considering that the era of entering the world of YouTube is different and how YouTube applies different policies and keeps changing its algorithm.
Other migrant workers may unknowingly dive into the YouTube pool which is already saturated and become a commodity in a cycle called prosumer.
Prosumer is a digital activity by adding new properties that match their performance in the digital world37.
In a participatory concept, prosumers can produce, for example, new narratives according to certain canons into the global imagination.
Prosumer is actually a symbol of an action, regardless of the object and the motivation is definitely related to the expectation of getting rewards.
In prosumer, the status as a consumer will make them expect to enjoy the results of a project, while the status as a producer aims to make a financial contribution, to be part of the content and structure of a Christian Fuchs explains that in an information society, we are actually in the age of information capitalism38.
When information plays an important role in production, the relations in production become on the path of capitalism.
Fuchs considers that several forms of capitalism .
inancial, imperialist, industrial, informationa.
are interrelated and encourage one another.
The concept of a commodity audience currently has some relevance in the era of privatized social media, where consumers not only produce themselves as a commodity to be sold and advertised but also increase self-generated Users work without pay and produce content, communication, social relations, and data transactions to become part of the commodity.
Users and their data become commodities, characterized by alienation .
sers do not own the platform, content, or profit.
, expropriation, and coercion, where they must comply to use commercial platforms to participate in social relations.
Transmedia and Widening Space for Commodification Transmedia cannot be separated from the growth of commodification spaces for migrant workers in the digital realm.
The main platform that was initially used focused on YouTube is now increasingly diverse and has another strong rival, namely TikTok.
Reporting from Indonesian data, it is stated that YouTube users alone reached 241 billion in the second quarter of 2022 in the world and Indonesia is the country with the fourth largest number of smartphone users in the world in 2022.
On the other hand.
Indonesia is the third largest Youtube user in the world.
This certainly makes us not (Planells 2017, 620-.
(Fuchs and Sandoval 2.
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On the Mboke Memey channel, even though it already has 771 subscribers, it turns out that the income you get from YouTube is not much due to YouTube's policies which we cannot predict.
With the Youtube algorithm being erratic and depending on the amount of paid content on various audience profiles, it will indirectly encourage YouTube users to continue working unconsciously due to the encouragement of the algorithm.
Mboke Memey is an example of content commodification that keeps happening and enters the prosumer circle without getting commensurate results with high work risks, apart from having to create content while looking after the employer's children and doing household activities, it also indirectly participates in publicizing privacy - employer's The process of creating content that has no time limit when it ends, such as during rest hours or at night, which makes YouTubers work "overtime" without being paid, further strengthens how the prosumer process occurs due to algorithm demands.
This is now not only happening on Youtube but has also moved to other platforms on TikTok.
TikTok uses FYP as its main page to display trending content and content according to user preferences according to the very sensitive TikTok algorithm.
TikTok's success in forming an algorithm that is as sensitive as possible to user tastes has made TikTok the application that now dominates Southeast Asia.
Katadata39 said that Indonesia's internet usage has fallen but quota costs have risen because TikTok and TikTok's live streaming beat Shopee in Indonesia.
This shows that Tiktok is being greatly enjoyed in Indonesia, not only Indonesia but also by migrant workers who work outside Indonesia.
They often create content that they aim at FYP, not infrequently for the sake of achieving FYP, they sell big salary lures, sad stories of being migrant workers, their struggles, and also sell a sexy body image which is done a lot.
FYP can open the way for them to have large followers and high viewers when live streaming which can generate additional money.
For migrant workers.
TikTok is not just a means of entertainment for them but also an additional workplace for them to make a living in overseas lands with extra working hours and without state protection when, for example, sudden harassment occurs in the online realm.
Jenkins describes transmedia in terms of storytelling as a process in which integral elements of fiction are distributed systemically through various channels with the aim of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.
Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.
It is a particular story structure that expands through both different languages AU AU .
erbal, iconic, etc.
) and media .
inema, comics, television, video games, etc.
Transmedia storytelling is not just an adaptation of one another.
The different media and language participates contribute to the construction of the world of transmedia.
This textual dispersion is one of the most important sources of complexity in contemporary popular culture.
Transmedia storytelling is taking the audience on an emotional journey that goes from moment to moment.
(Septian 2.
(Plessis 2019, 175-.
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Januari 2026 Double Commodification in Youtube Content of Indonesian Migrant Workers The view of the political economy of the media places media content as an important point in the commodification process.
Media content or what is often called content becomes a commodity that can be changed from use value to exchange value.
The commodification of content is always related to content from a media that is suitable for sale to the market and adapted to the interests of the market itself.
More specifically, the process of commodification of communication involves the process of transforming messages, from bits of data to thought systems, which means into marketable products.
The media content provided to the market contains symbols, meanings, information, pictures, everyday stories, and so on according to market interests.
So that the commodification of media content and its format must always be monitored so that it becomes suitable for "trading".
Likewise, with Youtube content, the content creator or creator will try to upload content that the audience likes.
To find out what content themes are liked by the "market" can be seen from the number of viewers for each content.
That number of viewers can be monetized by creators.
There are quite a number of forms of monetizing YouTube accounts, including advertising revenue, channel subscriptions, merchandise galleries, super chat & super stickers, as well as creating content for premium Youtube subscribers.
Each form of monetization has its own terms and conditions.
Youtube creators are often tempted by the results of this monetization, even though currently Youtube imposes quite strict terms and conditions.
In order to get target viewers, creators make videos without time and busyness restrictions, including Indonesian migrant workers who have personal YouTube accounts.
Like the account "Mboke Memey" owned by Markhatin Solikha (Ati.
which in every video always shows his main daily work as a household assistant in Hong Kong.
She records each of her videos along with cleaning the house, taking care of the children, cooking, washing, taking the children to school, shopping for her daily menu needs, and so on.
Not infrequently this woman from Brebes.
Central Java, seems troubled and uncomfortable when taking videos.
In each title of her content.
Atin mentions the owner of the house where she works as her employer and often refers to herself as a maid.
In several videos.
Atin often complains that his main work is actually quite timeconsuming.
It is evident in several videos, he is often late for food, and is stated in some of the video titles, such as, "NO EMPLOYER KEEPS HAVING AMy Employer Where to Make Indonesian Satay for Their ChildrenAAy.
AuADD TO THE TROUBLE KELLY RETURNS FROM ENGLANDAOnly Mboke ART dares to manage the EmployerAy.
AuMY ACTIVITIES WHEN EMPLOYERS AT HOME || COOK JAPANESE CURRY FOR THE EMPLOYER AND THEIR CHILDRENAy.
AuMY STRUGGLE TO TAKE CARE OF MISS REMPONG || RELATED FOR 1 YEAR NOT TO USE A HP TO TAKE CARE OF HIMAy.
AuDO THIS IF MISS REMPONG IS SMOKING AGAIN || MAYBE YOU HAVE TO BE EXTRA PATIENT!!!!", etc.
Therefore, to document her daily activities.
Atin has to spend extra effort.
Apart from that, in several videos.
Atin often shares her grievances during her time as a migrant worker, especially about holidays, separation from her family, and obstacles to returning to Indonesia.
Some of the video titles he uploaded also feature these complaints, such as "DRAMA MISS REMPONG IF YOU WANT TO GO ON (Moscow 2.
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AuHONG KONG TKW WORKING HOLIDAYS.
PAY IDR 370,000/DAY WHY ARE THEY WORKING???Ay .
AuHomecoming to IndonesiaANEKAD HOME ALONE WITHOUT PICKING UPAGENEVIVE CRYING TO JERAy.
AuWANT TO BE MARRIED!!! IT WAS A HOLIDAY DIRECTLY AT THE EMPLOYER'S PICK UP BECAUSE THEIR AN4K WAS CRYINGAy.
AuSADAFREE TO PARENTS WANT TO migrate TO HK AGAINALast AU AU DAY IN VILLAGEAo.
AuCAN'T TAKE LEAVE HAVE TO GO HOME FOREVER FAILS MY HOPE.
", and others.
Extra effort is clearly made by Atin, because within a week, he uploads at least 2 videos.
A size that is quite productive for a "part-time" Youtuber.
Not only Atin the Mboke Memey who has to make a double effort in each video.
Leli Lestari did the same thing through her channel.
Zhiee Leely, which she started in In order to get a lot of viewers, he has to document all his daily activities.
In fact, the husband contributes daily content to the channel as well.
Initially.
Leli documented her daily activities in South Korea alone without her husband.
However, a year ago he decided to resign as a migrant worker and return to Indonesia.
Since then, the content has been divided into Indonesian content and South Korean content.
Leli's husband, who now still works as a factory worker in South Korea, also makes her daily content there.
And Leli herself also creates special content for her daily life in Indonesia.
The reason Leli's husband is involved in creating content in South Korea is that South Korean content has earned many viewers on the Zhiee Leely channel.
This is evident from Leli's content when she was still working in the country of Ginseng which became the most popular video on her channel.
And it is content about South Korea that makes the Zhiee Leely channel earn hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Leli and her husband also have to make extra efforts to upload daily vlogs on their YouTube channel.
Amid the density of their work as factory workers in South Korea, they both have to find time to make daily vlogs.
Slightly different from the Mboke Memey channel, which is mostly about household chores and parenting, the Zhiee Leely channel documents more about shopping for various foods and necessities at minimarkets/convenience stores in Korea, street food, room tours, and field trips to plantations.
Besides that, since Leli moved to Indonesia, the uploaded content has also been more diverse, covering her busy life in Indonesia.
Not long ago, he also succeeded in building a new house in Indonesia from his work in Korea.
At first glance, the contents uploaded by Leli appear to be more diverse than Atin's However, like the concept of Bourdieu's theory of capital which explains that the capital owned by social actors will affect their position in the arena42.
If Youtube becomes an arena for its creators, then the creators with the largest capital will dominate it.
In the context of channels belonging to migrant workers in this study.
Leli and Atin have different social capital.
Leli, who works as a factory worker, has a wider social network than Atin, who works as a household assistant in Hong Kong.
Leli has more freedom to determine her activities outside factory working hours, while Atin has fewer "free hours" opportunities because she is tied to her employer and family.
Judging from the type of work.
Leli works in a sector that tends to be formal compared to Atin who works in the non-formal sector.
That way, the social capital owned by Youtuber creators influences the type and diversity of their content.
(Harker, dkk 2.
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Januari 2026 Even so, both Atin (Mboke Meme.
and Leli and her husband (Zhiee Leel.
experienced commodification by Youtube.
Without them realizing it, both of them are actually "employed" by Youtube .
igital labo.
, through the content they upload.
Christian Fuchs .
in his theory of digital labor, explains that social media users are subject to commodification when they are connected to the internet .
Youtube users, including creators, actually cannot be said to get a salary.
In fact, they produce values AU AU which are then commodified by capital, in this study Youtube.
According to Fuchs .
, social media users who are constantly connected to the internet will not be able to convert their "work" to make ends meet.
Thus.
Youtube implements what Karl Marx calls the "added value" of laborers' work.
The object of YouTube's labor is the human experience.
Before social media, the human experience was more private, isolated, and disconnected from one another.
Youtube makes it public and connected.
All experiences uploaded by Atin and Leli to their personal channels are made into Youtube as a commodity for economic interests.
Through the logic of digital capitalism, we can find that digital labor products are data that represent individual and social experiences, which are open to the public.
Apart from that, it can be said that life has become a factory, and workers' workspace is widespread, almost in all the daily activities of these creators.
This then becomes an important element in the accumulation of capital for social media.
If well-known Youtubers are generally born from privileged circles.
Atin and Leli actually come from economically vulnerable groups.
Since the beginning, their position as migrant workers has been used as a commodity, not only by their distribution agents, but also by the state.
Plus they voluntarily decided to share their life experiences on Youtube.
Automatically, they experience double commodification by the channeling agent - the state and Youtube.
Both should spend more time shooting videos, editing, and uploading Not only that, they clearly work overtime because they have to complete their main daily work and become digital laborers.
This multiplied work certainly brings multiple risks, such as those concerning health and privatization.
Furthermore, speaking of privatization in the digital space, it can be said that the two creators from among migrant workers have lost most of the private things in their daily lives.
Like all the videos on the Mboke Memey account which are daily vlogs, 80% of the content is always shared with Memey .
he employer's child who is raised by Ati.
Because her main job is domestic worker, most of Atin's video backgrounds are her employer's house.
Incidentally, the employer where Atin works allows him to record all activities in the house along with his family.
However, the issue of privatization can also be a boomerang for migrant workers when creating content, especially those who work as household assistants.
If when recording and uploading content that shows pictures of the employer's house and his family without permission, there is a risk of being brought to Likewise.
Leli and her husband recorded their work in the factory several times, and both of them risk being brought into legal action if they record things that are prohibited or without permission.
Both are clearly missing some of the private things in life, such as home position, family members, and their daily network.
Exploitation and Alienation of Indonesian Migrant Workers as Youtube Creators In the realm of digital capitalism, there is the term non-material work in social Immaterial work is defined as work that produces non-material products, such as a.
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The concept of immaterial work raises various opinions about exploitation and alienation.
Fuchs & Sevignani .
argues that activity on social media, including YouTube, has alienated They see activities in cyberspace as productive work .
ork that can be made into a commodit.
, which can alienate humans in three dimensions, namely alienation from oneself, alienation from productive work objects in the form of work instruments .
, and alienation from the products they create.
The alienation of these three dimensions forms an alienation from the entire production process which is caused by the existence of power relations and results in exploitation.
However, it must be admitted, it is very difficult for Youtube creators, including those who come from migrant workers to see this exploitation.
The main reason that is most visible is that social media has a new kind of participatory and democratic culture, thus making its users voluntarily to be productive.
Second, the exploitation side seems absent because of social media, in this study Youtube is used in spare time.
On the Mboke Memey and Zhiee Leely channels, we can see that both of them upload videos during their free time.
Even though from Atin's point of view .
wner of the Mboke Memey channe.
, her free time is more difficult, she tries to make videos when her main work is not too busy.
Meanwhile.
Leli and her husband on the Zhiee Leely channel record most of their videos during their free time, such as eating, walking, and shopping.
Both YouTube creators and viewers will feel that they are using YouTube as entertainment and looking for fun.
That is why Fuchs coined the term "playbour" which voluntarily gives up added value like playing.
At first glance, being a Youtuber is a relaxed and seemingly free job because creators can create content at any time, without time limits.
In the results of Himatul Ulya's research .
Youtubers feel the opposite.
Indeed, on the one hand, you can be free because there are no working hours, but the lack of working hours is what traps you because Youtube has terms and conditions so that a channel can be monetized through money and advertisements through the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) policy.
Because of the strict terms and conditions that make working terms without time limits tricky and tricky.
Creators, including Atin and Leli, are "forced" to meet these stringent requirements so that their channels can continue to be productive and monetized.
And until now there has been no official regulation from the government to regulate digital industry matters and protect the rights of digital workers.
Furthermore, with regard to the concept of alienation, all content uploaded by creators, especially from migrant workers, becomes very important data for the Youtube And these potential data cannot be owned by video creators due to limited ownership of technological means.
Youtube as a digital corporation certainly has more sophisticated and complete technological facilities than its users, making the social media corporation entitled to claim ownership of user data.
Meanwhile, creators cannot enjoy data on their work "without a time limit".
Even though these data have the potential to be AusoldAy to advertisers.
That is what causes YouTube creators to be alienated from their (Hardt & Negri 2004, .
(Fuchs & Sevignani 2018, .
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Januari 2026 As YouTube creators.
Atin and Leli also experience alienation from their work.
All they can know is what content topics interest their channel's audience.
They cannot "sell" these data directly to advertisers, it is Youtube that determines the advertisements on their channel through Youtube AdSense.
Even then, if their content and channel meet the qualifications of YPP.
Of course, the alienation experienced by Atin and Leli doubled because they also work as migrant workers in their respective countries.
Like Atin (Mboke Meme.
, most of the videos are only at home while raising children.
He only leaves the house to pick up and drop off from school, go shopping, and if his employer takes Atin out for certain events.
Even on holidays.
Atin rarely leaves the house, except when meeting some friends.
However.
Atin's daily vlog feels freer and more diverse when he returns to Indonesia.
Meanwhile.
Leli and her husband (Zhiee Leel.
seem to be experiencing less isolation because there are several traveling videos.
However, when Leli started making daily vlogs, she showed her life as a factory worker who also experienced alienation because she didn't only work in the factory area.
Leli also lived in dormitories around the factory.
He can be released from alienation when he decides to resign and return to his homeland.
CONCLUSION
Indonesian migrant workers who open YouTube channels and become vloggers have indirectly been commodified and entered into the prosumer process circle.
The commodification in question is where migrant workers work continuously for Youtube by producing content to suit YouTube and other social media algorithms in order to encourage the improvement of their economy because just being a migrant worker is felt to provide less welfare for them.
It's not without risk, being a YouTuber, which means that it's commodified by YouTube, makes migrant workers have to do double jobs, double the risk from their workplaces in the digital space, where so far there have been no regulations by the government.
Differences in work background among migrant workers such as whether he is a domestic helpers or a laborer have a different commodification impact on them.
This research can still be continued, such as conducting quantitative research on how many Indonesian migrant workers open YouTube channels, what is the impact on their welfare, and to what extent their income has increased after opening new jobs in the digital space with different capital and so on.
REFERENCES