Memahami Kompetensi Komunikasi Antarbudaya Pada TKI Legal dan TKI Ilegal

Abstract

Indonesia is a country which has a lot of labors, or also known as Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (TKI). It supplies many labors to the other countries in Asia-Pacific and so the middle east countries. Saudi Arabia is a country which has the most large number of illegal TKI. The purpose of this research is to understanding the difference between legal and illegal TKI about their intercultural communication competence. The other purpose is to understanding what obstacles and efforts that must be through by TKI to build their intercultural communication competence. The type of this research is phenomenological descriptive-qualitative. Some theories that used in this research are Adaptation Theory by Judee Burgoon (1993), Interaction Symbolic Theory by George Hebert Mead (1934), and Intercultural Communication Competence Theory by Martin and Nakayama (2007). Most of TKI had the anxiety and uncertainty feeling when they come to the Saudi Arabia for the first time. To make it out, they did some secretly observation (passive strategy). During they adapted, they try to join and become one with the people of Saudi Arabia (assimilation). Non-verbal language is the most important thing for TKI to create an interaction with their boss. Most of TKI said that they have less interaction with their male boss than with their female boss. It means that the factor of a culture influence the intensity of interaction between somebody and the other person from the different culture. According to the research, there are differences of intercultural communication competense skill between legal and illegal TKI: (1) legal TKI have the higher motivation than illegal TKI to build communication with their boss, (2) legal TKI have the faster ability than illegal TKI to learn Arabian language, (3) legal TKI tended to have no problem when they tried to increase their knowledge about their boss’s culture, (4) legal TKI give their emphaty to their boss actively, whereas illegal TKI show their emphaty passively, (5) legal TKI actively try to face their problem and solve it as soon as possible, whereas illegal TKI don’t. Keywords: TKI, intercultural communication competence, adaptation, interaction