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.
Highlights
Many studies have been conducted on ethnic and national identity or minority and majority groups (Verkuyten, 2018; Hindriks, Verkuyten, & Coenders, 2014)
Indonesia is unique in that it has more than 250 ethnic groups, but none of them can claim that they are really indigenous to the country because some of them immigrated to Indonesia many centuries ago
This study aims to answer the following questions: Q1: Is the relationship model between multiculturalism, social distance, ethnic, and national identity described in Figure 1 the same between Chinese Indonesians and non-Chinese Indonesians? Q2: Are there mean differences in the level of multiculturalism, social distance, and ethnic and national identity between Chinese Indonesians and non-Chinese Indonesians?
Summary
Many studies have been conducted on ethnic and national identity or minority and majority groups (Verkuyten, 2018; Hindriks, Verkuyten, & Coenders, 2014). The majority of these studies were done by researchers in immigrant-receiving countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Immigrants are expected to adopt the traditional values of the host country (Vasta, 2007). Going to and living in a new cultural environment does not mean abandoning their cultural heritage Leaving their ethnic identity behind would probably be the best choice for a comfortable existence in the host country. We argue that most of the studies about ethnic and identity from immigrant-receiving countries cannot be directly applied to the Indonesian context because there seems to be no contradictions between its ethnic groups’ and national identity
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