Highly educated people are mainly concentrated in big cities or metropolitan areas. However, some of them choose to move to less developed regions. Using information from in-depth interviews of 15 highly educated migrants that recently moved to Sorong City, a small city in easternmost Indonesia, this study examines the narratives behind their spatial movements. The findings show that promising career development is a critical factor in their migration decision-making process. Although most of them faced difficulties with the limited living amenities in Sorong city, the migrants managed to improve their employability and accelerate their social mobility. However, some migrants expressed their intentions to remigrate from the city in the future. This situation indicates the lack of migrants’ social integration and the challenges in the human capital accumulation in the region.

受过高等教育的人主要集中在大城市或大都市地区。然而，他们中的一些人选择搬到欠发达地区。本研究利用对最近搬到印度尼西亚东部小城市索龙市的 15 名受过高等教育的移民进行深入访谈的信息，研究他们空间运动背后的叙述。调查结果表明，有前途的职业发展是他们移民决策过程中的一个关键因素。尽管他们中的大多数人都面临着索龙市有限的生活设施的困难，但农民工设法提高了他们的就业能力并加快了他们的社会流动性。然而，一些移民表达了他们未来从城市移民的意图。