Navigating ‘Ke-Indonesia-an’ in diaspora: Transnational habitus and the construction of national values among migrant children in Sabah, Malaysia, and Semarang, Indonesia

Hamdan Tri  Atmaja; Thriwaty Arsal; Eva Banowati; Argitha Aricindy

doi:10.21831/jc.v23i2.97057

Authors

Hamdan Tri Atmaja Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Thriwaty Arsal Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Eva Banowati Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Argitha Aricindy National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4237-4293

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21831/jc.v23i2.97057

Keywords:

ke-Indonesia-an, transnational habitus, social construction, migrant children, citizenship education

Abstract

This study examines the social construction and habituation of Indonesian national identity (ke-Indonesia-an) among early adolescents in two contrasting environments: Semarang, Indonesia, and Sabah, Malaysia. Using a comparative ethnographic design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and documentary analysis involving 22 participants: 10 students (aged 13–15), 8 parents or guardians, and 4 teachers across three field sites: junior secondary schools in Semarang, Community Learning Centers (CLC) in Sabah, and non-CLC migrant households in Sabah. The analysis integrates Berger and Luckmann's (1966) social constructionism, Bourdieu's (1990) habitus and field theory, and Sayad's (1999) transnational habitus framework. Findings reveal that in Semarang, ke-Indonesia-an is reinforced through coherent institutional mechanisms, producing what Billig (1995) terms “banal nationalism.” In contrast, migrant children in Sabah navigate a fragmented identity process shaped by assimilation pressures, legal precarity, and social stigma, yet sustain “performative nationalism” through CLC education, familial oral histories, and digital media. A critical finding is that family habitus, classified as either aspirational or survival-oriented, serves as the decisive mediating mechanism in the internalisation of national values. The role of public history transmission, particularly through CLC history instruction by Guru Bina and parental oral narratives, emerges as a significant yet undertheorised mechanism in diaspora identity formation. The study contributes to transnational citizenship education, sociology of education, and public history scholarship by demonstrating that national identity formation cannot be reduced to formal schooling alone, and that policy must attend to the family as the primary site of historical memory transmission in transnational contexts.

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