National Identity as Predicted by Ethnic Identity and Social Distance with Multiculturalism as Mediator: A Study Involving Chinese Indonesian Students in Jakarta

Abstract

As a large multiethnic country, Indonesia has limited studies regarding factors that may influence the national identity of Indonesians of Chinese descent. This study examined the relations between four variables-ethnic identity, multiculturalism, social distance, and Indonesian national identity-between Chinese (n = 159) and non-Chinese Indonesian university students (n = 158) in Jakarta. A multiple-group path analysis was conducted to analyze data from Chinese and non-Chinese samples. The results revealed that structural covariance invariance was the best fit, describing ethnic identity's direct prediction of national identity and social distance's indirect prediction of national identity, fully mediated by multiculturalism. The mean score comparisons showed that both groups exhibited higher national identity than ethnic identity. A context of living in a global urban-metropolitan city may influence identity formation.

National Identity in the Indonesian Youth [Identitas Nasional di Kalangan Orang Muda Indonesia]

“…Regarding the levels of national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) and ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]) that were high and positively correlated, these results were consistent with those of Surijah et al (2019) in young people in Bali, Suryani et al (2019) in students of Chinese descents in Jakarta, and Gong (2007) in young people of Asian and African descents in the United States of America; the result being that national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) was positively correlated with ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]). Related to the findings of Fuller-Rowell et al (2013) that national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) and ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]) were positively correlated in young people of non-Caucasian minority provided that no discrimination by majority was present, those four findings appeared to provide strong evidence on the importance of strengthening the levels of both national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) and ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]) in young people within the pluralistic Indonesian society since the two kinds of social identity proved to be positively and significantly correlated.…”

“…Indonesian anthropologists tended to look at the negative side of ethnicity and to give more importance to culture for the sake of building a discourse of Indonesian nationalism (Mattulada, 1999;Suparlan, 2003). Comparing the national identity of Chinese and non-Chinese students in Jakarta, Suryani et al (2019) found, among others, that the level of national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) of those youth was higher than that of their ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]) and that national identity (identitas nasional [IN]) was positively correlated with ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]). They interpreted these findings as indicating that with regard to their ethnic identity (identitas suku bangsa [ISB]) those youth were feeling safe and comfortable with the social environment that was characterized by multiculturalism and pluralism.…”

“…Kalangan Antropologi di Indonesia cenderung melihat sisi negatif kesuku-bangsaan dan mengutamakan kebudayaan dalam rangka membangun wacana kebangsaan atau ke-Indonesiaan (Suparlan, 2003;Mattulada, 1999). Membandingkan identitas nasional di kalangan mahasiswa Tionghoa dan non-Tionghoa di Jakarta, Suryani et al (2019) menemukan, antara lain, bahwa taraf identitas nasional (IN) mereka lebih tinggi dibandingkan taraf identitas suku bangsa (ISB) mereka dan bahwa identitas nasional (IN) berhubungan secara positif dengan identitas suku bangsa (ISB). Temuan ini ditafsirkan sebagai menunjukkan bahwa terkait identitas suku bangsa (ISB) mereka, anak-anak muda itu merasa aman dan nyaman dengan lingkungan sosial mereka yang ditandai dengan multikulturalisme dan pluralisme.…”

“…Terkait taraf identitas nasional (IN) dan identitas suku bangsa (ISB) yang secara umum tinggi dan berkorelasi positif, temuan ini sejalan dengan temuan Surijah et al (2019) pada orang muda di Bali, Suryani et al (2019) pada mahasiswa keturunan Tionghoa di Jakarta, dan Gong (2007) pada orang muda keturunan Asia dan Afrika di Amerika Serikat bahwa identitas nasional (IN) dan identitas suku bangsa (ISB) berkorelasi positif. Dikaitkan dengan temuan Fuller-Rowell et al (2013) bahwa identitas nasional (IN) dan identitas suku bangsa (ISB) berkorelasi secara positif di kalangan orang muda minoritas non-Kaukasian sepanjang tidak disertai diskriminasi oleh mayoritas, empat temuan ini dipandang memberikan bukti kuat tentang pentingnya meningkatkan taraf identitas nasional (IN) dan identitas suku bangsa (ISB) di kalangan orang muda dalam masyarakat pluralistik Indonesia sebab dua jenis identitas sosial itu terbukti berhubungan erat secara positif dan signifikan.…”

Mini-Symposium as a Forum of Discussion and Workshop

“…As a multi-ethnic country, Indonesia faces various challenges related to the issue of diversity, particularly related to the construct of identity. In their study, Suryani, Setiadi, Nurrachman, Panggabean, and Wibawa (2019) explain that regarding group identity, both Chinese and non-Chinese groups in urban contexts, national identity is found to be stronger than ethnic identity. This finding suggests that different ethnic identities can be united through national identity (i.e., being "Indonesians") as a superordinate identity.…”