Orang Indonesia Perantauan | |
---|---|
Total population | |
Total: 6-9 million [Note 1] 2023 estimate [1] [2] [3] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Indonesia c. 280 million [4] | |
Malaysia |
|
Netherlands |
|
Saudi Arabia | |
Singapore |
|
South Africa | 300,000 (assimilate into the local Cape Malays) [22] [23] |
Taiwan | 300,000 (2020) [24] |
Hong Kong | 200,000 (2019) [25] |
United States | 145,031 (2022) [26] [27] [28] |
Japan | 122,028 (2023) [29] |
United Arab Emirates | 111,987 (2019) [30] |
Australia | c. 87,000–92,400 (2021) (Indonesian-born) [31] [32] |
Suriname |
|
Cambodia | 100,000 (2024) [35] |
Brunei | 80,000 (2018) [36] (excluding Indonesian ancestry) |
Jordan | 46,586 (2019) [30] |
Philippines | 43,871 [37] [38] |
South Korea | 42,000 (2019) [39] |
Sri Lanka | 40,148 (2014) (assimilate into the local Sri Lankan Malays) |
China | 38,000 (2020) [40] (only Indonesian legal workers) |
Qatar | 37,669 (2019) [30] |
Bahrain | 33,000 [41] |
Kuwait | 28,954 (2020) [30] |
Germany | 24,000 (2021) [42] |
Canada | 21,390 (2016) [43] |
Syria | 12,904 (2019) [30] |
United Kingdom | 11,000 [41] |
Brazil | 7,310 (2022) [44] |
New Zealand | 7,000 [41] |
France | 6,000 [41] |
New Caledonia | 4,300 |
Sweden | 3,000-5,000 (See: Overseas Acehnese) [41] |
Italy | 4,000 [41] |
French Guiana | 3,000 |
Turkey | 2,400 (2020) [45] |
Norway | 2,000 [41] |
Languages | |
Indonesian, Regional Languages of Indonesia, English, Dutch, Chinese, Arabic, Afrikaans, German, Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, Papiamento, Cantonese, Taiwanese | |
Religion | |
Islam · Christianity · Hinduism · Buddhism · Confucianism · Irreligion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Native Indonesians, Dutch Indonesians, Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians |
Overseas Indonesians (Indonesian : Orang Indonesia Perantauan) are Indonesians who live outside of Indonesia. These include citizens that have migrated to another country as well as people born abroad of Indonesian descent. According to Ministry of Law and Human Rights, more than 6-9 million Indonesians diaspora live abroad in 2023. [Note 4]
Since ancient times, people from various ethnic groups of Indonesia have been leaving their hometowns to other parts of the world for purposes of trade, education, labor, or travel. Migration of ancient Indonesians began 2,000 years ago, they migrated to various places including Madagascar, East Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and Southeast Asian countries.
Beginning between the 5th and 7th centuries, Austronesian seafarers from the Indonesian archipelago, particularly from Kalimantan and Sulawesi, embarked on a remarkable journey across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. These early migrants established settlements, bringing with them advanced agricultural techniques, including the cultivation of rice and bananas, as well as their language and cultural practices. The influence of these early Indonesians is evident in the Malagasy language, which retains many Austronesian elements, and in the genetic makeup of the Malagasy people, who exhibit a blend of Southeast Asian and African ancestries.
During the era of the Srivijaya Empire (7th - 13th centuries), centered in Sumatra, Indonesian traders and settlers expanded their influence throughout Southeast Asia. The Srivijaya Empire was a powerful maritime kingdom that controlled key trade routes, facilitating the movement of people and goods. Indonesian traders established communities in the Malay Peninsula, Thailand, and the Philippines, spreading their cultural and religious practices, including Buddhism and Hinduism. This period of maritime dominance laid the groundwork for further cultural and economic exchanges in the region.
The subsequent Majapahit Empire (13th - 16th centuries), based in Java, continued to expand Indonesian influence through its extensive trade networks. The Majapahit Empire was known for its powerful navy and commercial prowess, which allowed it to control trade routes and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia. Indonesian traders and settlers played a crucial role in the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies, further integrating the region and spreading Indonesian cultural and religious practices.
The Dutch colonial period (16th - 20th centuries) marked a significant shift in Indonesian migration patterns. Under the control of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which wielded authority over vast swathes of the Indonesian archipelago, Indonesians were forcibly relocated as laborers to other parts of the Dutch Empire. This included destinations such as Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. Additionally, during the 18th century, political dissidents opposing Dutch colonization were deported from Indonesia to South Africa, where they formed a community known as the Cape Malays. [48]
The practice of going abroad has been motivated by the Merantau culture of the Indonesian people since ancient times. Merantau has been associated deeply with the Minangkabau people as a cultural way of life. A Minangkabau man at the time of young adulthood (20–30 years old) is often encouraged to go abroad as part of the Minangkabau culture; this serves as a sign of manhood to accrue wealth, knowledge, and life experience. [49] This practice can be traced to the 7th century, when Minangkabau merchants played a major role in establishing of the Malay kingdom in Jambi, which was a strategic position for trade via the Silk Road.
Other Indonesian ethnic groups such as the Bugis, Banjar, Madura, Aceh, Batak, and Javanese have also been traveling overseas to gain opportunities, experience, knowledge, and versatility.
Before Dutch and British sailors arrived in Australia, Indonesians from Southern Sulawesi have explored the Australia northern coast. Each year, the Bugis sailors would sail down on the northwestern monsoon in their wooden pinisi. They would stay in Australia for several months to trade and take tripang (or dried sea cucumber) before returning to Makassar on the dry season off shore winds. These trading voyages continued until 1907.[ citation needed ] Nowadays, many Indonesian residents of Australia are either foreign students or workers, with a large number being of Chinese Indonesian heritage. Furthermore, the Cocos Malays are descendants of native Indonesians brought by the Clunies-Ross family to work in the copra industry in the 19th century.
According Interior Ministry of Cambodia, more than 100,000 Indonesian citizen lived in Cambodia. [35]
Indonesians are the second largest foreigner group after Filipinos, mainly working as female domestic helpers from Java Island. There are also several Chinese Indonesian families and students that reside in Hong Kong. Central and Wan Chai are the main districts that most Indonesians live in.
In 2013, approximately 20,000 Indonesians lived in Japan, including about 3,000 illegal Indonesians. These numbers dropped from the previous years for various reasons, including the high cost of living in Japan and the difficulty of finding jobs in Japan. Most of them are in Japan for a short term and deportation remains high for Indonesian residents. In 2022, approximately 98,865 Indonesians lived in Japan. [50]
Malaysia shares a land border with Indonesia and both countries share many aspects of their culture, including mutually intelligible national languages. Populations have long moved between the areas which make up the modern-day states. Since the distinction between the two regions emerged in the early 19th century, many people from Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, which are located in modern-day Indonesia, migrated and settled in the Malay Peninsula and in Malaysian Borneo. These earlier populations have mostly effectively or partially assimilated with the larger Malaysian-Malay community due to religious, social and cultural similarities. Currently, it is also estimated that there are around 2 million Indonesian citizens in Malaysia at any given time, ranging from all types of backgrounds including a significant majority of labour migrants alongside a considerable number of professionals and students.
Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands from 1605 until 1949. During and after the Indonesian National Revolution, many Moluccans and Indo people, people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian ancestry migrated to the Netherlands. Most of them were former members of the KNIL army. In this way, around 360,000 Indo people and Totoks (white people) and 12,500 persons from Maluke ancestry were settled in the Netherlands. Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Denny Landzaat, Roy Makaay, Mia Audina, and Daniel Sahuleka are notable people of Indonesian ancestry from the Netherlands. These 372,500 first generation people and their 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation offspring account for some 1.6 million Dutch passport-holders and form as much as 10% of the overall population of the Netherlands.
Tong Tong Fair is the largest cultural festival in the world for Indonesian diaspora. Established in 1959, it is one of the oldest festivals and the fourth largest grand fair in the Netherlands. It is also the annual event with the highest number of paying visitors of the Dutch city of The Hague, having consistently attracted more than 100,000 visitors since 1993.
The Netherlands is also one of the European countries with most Indonesian students. In the early 20th century, many Indonesian students studied in the Netherlands. Most of them lived in Leiden and were active in the Perhimpoenan Indonesia (Indonesian Association). There were 1.402 Indonesian nationals enrolled in Dutch universities in 2018/2019, which makes it the 13th largest student communities in the country. [51]
The official number of Indonesians in the Philippines range anywhere from 43,871 to 101,720. [37] They reside mostly in the island of Mindanao, in the Muslim parts with a noticeable community in Davao City that has an international school for the overseas community. They tend to be protective of their separate ethnic identity. Most are Muslims, while many others are also Christian, coming from Minahasan-speaking ancestry.
There are about 39,000 Indonesian citizens in the State of Qatar according to the Indonesian Embassy. [52]
Indonesian pilgrims have long lived in Hejaz, a region along the west coast of Saudi Arabia. Among them was Shaykh Ahmad Khatib Al-Minangkabawi who was from Minangkabau origin in Sumatra. He served as the Imam and taught at the Shafi'i school at the Grand Mosque in Mecca during the late 19th century. [53]
Many Indonesians in Saudi Arabia are domestic workers, with a minority of other types of labour migrants and students. Most of the santris (Islamic boarding school pupils) from Indonesia also have continued to pursue their education in Saudi, such as in the Islamic University of Madinah and the Umm al-Qura University in Mecca. A number of Indonesian expatriates in Saudi Arabia work in diplomatic sectors and local private and foreign companies, such as in the Saudi Aramco, banking companies, Saudia Airlines, SABIC, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Indomie, etc. Most Indonesians in Saudi Arabia reside in Riyadh, Jeddah, and all around the Dammam area.
There are Saudi citizens who reside in Mecca and Jeddah that are of Indonesian descent. Their forefathers came from Indonesia by sea during the late 19th century til the mid 20th century for pilgrimage, trade, and Islamic education purposes. Many of them did not return to their homeland thus they decided to stay in Saudi and their descendants have become Saudi citizens ever since. Many of them also married with local Arab women and stayed permanently in Saudi. Their descendants today are recognizable with their family name originating from their forefathers' origins back in Indonesia, such as "Bugis", "Banjar", "Batawi" (Betawi), "Al-Felemban" (Palembang), "Faden" (Padang), "Al-Bantani" (Banten), "Al-Minangkabawi" (Minangkabau), "Bawayan" (Bawean), and many more. One of them is Muhammad Saleh Benten, a Saudi politician appointed by King Salman as the Minister of Hajj and Umrah. [54]
The Malays in Singapore (Malay: Orang Melayu Singapura) make up about 14% of the country's population. Most of them came from what we know today as Indonesia and southern Malaysia. In the 19th century, Singapore was part of Johor-Riau Sultanate. Many Indonesian people, mainly Bugis and Minangkabau settled in Singapore. From 1886 till 1890, as many as 21,000 Javanese became bonded labourers with the Singapore Chinese Protectorate, an organisation formed by the British in 1877 to monitor the Chinese population. They performed manual labour in the rubber plantations. After their bond ended, they continued to open up the land and stayed on in Johore. Famous Singaporeans of Indonesian descent are the first president of Singapore Yusof bin Ishak, and Zubir Said who composed the national anthem of Singapore Majulah Singapura .
According to the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, as of 2010 there are 180,000 Indonesian citizens in Singapore. As much as 80,000 work as domestic helpers/TKI, 10,000 as sailors, and the rest are either students or professionals. But the number can be higher as registering one's residence is not compulsory for Indonesians, putting the number to around 200,000 people.
People of Indonesian descent, mainly Javanese, make up 15% of the population of Suriname. In the 19th century, the Dutch sent the Javanese to Suriname as indentured laborers in plantations. The most famous person of Indonesian descent is Paul Somohardjo as the speaker of the National Assembly of Suriname. [55]
The United States is home to many Indonesian students and professionals. In the Silicon Valley region of Northern California, there are many professional Indonesian-American engineers in the technology industry who are employed in companies like Cisco Systems, KLA Tencor, Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and IBM. Sehat Sutardja, the CEO of Marvell Technology Group, is a prominent Indonesian professional in the USA. [56]
In April 2011, the Special English service of Voice of America reported on a push for American universities to attract more Indonesians to study in America in order to compete with students' preferred universities in Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. [57]
Minangkabau people, also known as Minang, are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Minangkabau's West Sumatera homelands was the seat of the Pagaruyung Kingdom, believed by early historians to have been the cradle of the Malay race, and the location of the Padri War.
In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders.
Datuk is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia.
Malay Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Malay ancestry, including those from the Malay Archipelago. They constitute approximately 13.5% of the country's residents, making them the second largest ethnic group in Singapore. Under the Constitution of Singapore, they are recognised by the government as the indigenous people of the country, with Malay as the national language of Singapore.
Indonesians are citizens or people who are identified with the country of Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic country with a diversity of languages, culture and religious beliefs. The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million. 56% live on the island of Java, the world's most populous island. Around 95% of Indonesians are Native Indonesians, primarily of Austronesian and Melanesian descent, with 40% Javanese and 15% Sundanese forming the majority, while the other 5% are Indonesians with ancestry from foreign origin, such as Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, and Indos.
Native Indonesians, also known as Pribumi or Bumiputra, are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, comprising around 1,300 ethnic groups and predominantly of Austronesian and Melanesian descent. In contrast are Indonesians of known (partial) foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians, Arab Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, Japanese Indonesians, and Indo-Europeans (Eurasians).
Overseas Malays refer to individuals with Malay race ancestry living outside Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Malaysian Malays are Malaysians of Malay ethnicity whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the Malay world. According to the 2023 population estimate, with a total population of 17.6 million, Malaysian Malays form 57.9% of Malaysia's demographics, the largest ethnic group in the country. They can be broadly classified into two main categories; Anak Jati and Anak Dagang.
The Overseas Minangkabau is a demographic group of Minangkabau people of Minangkabau Highlands origin in Central Sumatra, Indonesia who have settled in other parts of the world. Over half of the Minangkabau people can be considered overseas Minangkabaus. They make up the majority of the population of Negeri Sembilan and Pekanbaru. They also form a significant minority in the populations of Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Batam, Surabaya and Palembang in Indonesia as well as Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam in the rest of the Malay world. Minangkabaus have also emigrated as skilled professionals and merchants to the Netherlands, United States, Saudi Arabia and Australia. The matrilineal culture and economic conditions in West Sumatra have made the Minangkabau people one of the most mobile ethnic group in Maritime Southeast Asia.
Malay Indonesians are ethnic Malays living throughout Indonesia. They are one of the indigenous peoples of the country. Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, is a standardized form of Riau Malay. There were numerous kingdoms associated with the Indonesian Malays along with other ethnicities in what is now Indonesia, mainly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These included Srivijaya, the Melayu Kingdom, Dharmasraya, the Sultanate of Deli, the Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura, the Riau-Lingga Sultanate, the Sultanate of Bulungan, Pontianak Sultanate, and the Sultanate of Sambas. The 2010 census states that there are 8 million Malays in Indonesia; this number comes from the classification of Malays in East Sumatra and the coast of Kalimantan which is recognized by the Indonesian government. This classification is different from the Malaysia and Singapore census which includes all ethnic Muslims from the Indonesian archipelago as Malays.
Indonesians in Saudi Arabia consist largely of female domestic workers, with a minority of other types of labour migrants. As of 2018, an estimated 600,000 Indonesians were believed to be working in Saudi Arabia, comparable to the numbers of migrants are the groups from Bangladesh, India, Philippines and Pakistan, which number between 1 and 4 million people each.
Kedahan Malays or commonly known as Orang Utara ('Northerners'), are a sub-group of Malays native to northern Malay Peninsula in areas of both current and historical area of Kedah. They are among the oldest ethnic groups in the Malay peninsula with a history dating back 2,800 years as proven by the discovery of sites in Bujang Valley and historical documents from India, China and Arabia. Kedahan Malays are one of the largest Malay sub-groups in Malaysia, comprising at least 15% of the total Malaysian Malay population including those with Kedahan ancestry.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia or commonly known by its abbreviation Kemlu, is an Indonesian government ministry responsible for the country's foreign politics and diplomacy. The ministry was formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs until 2008 when the nomenclature changed with the enactment of the 2008 State Ministry Act.
Javanese Surinamese are an ethnic group of Javanese Indonesians descent in Suriname. They have been present since the late 19th century, when their first members were selected as indentured laborers by the Dutch colonizers from the former Dutch East Indies.
Negeri Sembilan Malay is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, including Alor Gajah and parts of Jasin District in northern Malacca, and parts of Segamat District in the northernmost part of Johor. The language is spoken by the descendants of Minangkabau settlers from Sumatra, who have migrated to Negeri Sembilan since as early as the 14th century. It is often considered a variant or dialect of the Minangkabau language; lexical and phonological studies, however, indicate that it is more closely related to Standard Malay than it is to Minangkabau.
Tengkolok, also known as Tanjak, Destar is a traditional Malay or Indonesian and male headgear. It is made from long songket cloth folded and tied in a particular style (solek). Nowadays, it is usually worn in ceremonial functions, such as royal ceremonies by royalties, and wedding ceremonies by grooms.
The Indonesian Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indonesian ancestry. Today, there are many Malaysian Malays who have lineage from the Indonesian archipelago and have played an important role in the history and contributed to the development of Malaysia, they have been assimilated with other Malay communities and are grouped as part of the foreign Malays or anak dagang in terms of race. The Malaysian census does not categorize ethnic groups from the Indonesian archipelago as a separate ethnic group, but rather as Malay or Bumiputera.
The Javanese diaspora is the demographic group of descendants of ethnic Javanese who emigrated from the Indonesian island of Java to other parts of the world. The Javanese diaspora includes a significant population in Suriname, with over 13% of the country's population being of Javanese ancestry. Other major enclaves are found in French Guiana, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.
The Minangkabau Malaysians are citizens of the Malaysia whose ancestral roots are from Minangkabau of central Sumatra. This includes people born in the Malaysia who are of Minangkabau origin as well as Minangkabau who have migrated to Malaysia. Today, Minangkabau comprise about 989,000 people in Malaysia, and Malaysian law considers most of them to be Malays. They are majority in urban areas, which has traditionally had the highest education and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. The history of the Minangkabau migration to Malay peninsula has been recorded to have lasted a very long time. When the means of transportation were still using the ships by down the rivers and crossing the strait, many Minang people migrated to various regions such as Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Pahang. Some scholars noted that the arrival of the Minangkabau to the Malay Peninsula occurred in the 12th century. This ethnic group moved in to peninsula at the height of the Sultanate of Malacca, and maintains the Adat Perpatih of matrilineal kinships system in Negeri Sembilan and north Malacca.
Nasruddin ibni Besar Abdullah, sometimes spelled Nassaruddin and posthumously named Marhum di Kianggeh, was the self-proclaimed 16th Sultan of Brunei and the grandson of Sultan Abdul Jalilul Akbar. It was under his reign that the first gold coins or pitis were introduced, with the name Nasiruddin Malik al Zahir.