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Abstract
A majority of youth in tertiary education in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, are migrants from other districts. This paper presents results from a small survey of these migrant youth. Most of the students came from lower-middle-class families. Both lower- and lower-middle-class youth have access to tertiary education in provincial cities, even though many feel that tertiary education in provincial cities is of lower quality compared with education in Java or abroad. This paper describes how most migrant youth see Pontianak as a ‘transit’ city—a stepping stone for upward mobility through schooling and temporary work before going back to their hometown to find a stable job. These migration decisions are often affected by ethnic identity. Many youth express the ambiguity of social mobility in their transition from education to work.
Notes
1. Other ethnic groups, such as Javanese, are also important in West Kalimantan, particularly in relation to transmigration programmes arranged by the Indonesian government in the 1980s. However, they are often considered less prominent in the dynamics of ethnic relations in West Kalimantan (Alqadrie 1990, p. 62).
2. Pemekaran is the establishment of new districts by dividing old districts into smaller areas.
3. The Chinese are now also claiming to be part of the ‘original’ ethnic group and participating in competition for political positions.
4. The Madurese work in various domains in the informal sector, such as in the transport system (taxi, becak, small boats) and small-scale trade (fruits and vegetables).
5. As a ‘loser’ in the Sambas conflict in 1999, often the Madurese are not portrayed as part of the main ethnic groups in public events held by the government (Berkat 2009).
6. Pontianak has two state universities and around twenty private ones. There are about 37,000 university students: 18,136 attend state universities (excluding those at the open university), while 19,115 attend private universities (Pontianak Statistics Bureau 2008) Migrant students from various parts of the province comprise around 15,000 students (Akim 2007).
7. Diploma programs are ‘vocational’ tertiary education.
8. Akta IV is a four-year undergraduate program for those interested in becoming teachers.
9. Information on ethnic backgrounds of each university was acquired from interviews and informal discussions with youth.
10. Among 38 Malay informants in my in-depth interviews, only 20 had Malay mothers and fathers. The rest were mixed between Malay and other ethnic groups, and a small number had no Malay parents, but felt Malay.
11. The estimates of parents’ income are problematic, since most of the students do not know precisely how much their parents earn.
12. In my interviews with students whose parents are farmers, there was a tendency to say that their mothers were not working since they were only ‘helping’ in the field. There may be quite a high number of working mothers in the agricultural sector not captured by the survey.
13. I do not have much information on the arrangement of ikut orang system among Chinese migrants in Pontianak. In interviews with them, they tended to say that they do not follow the ikut orang system, even though they live with a relative in Pontianak.
14. Oom-oom (uncles) and tante-tante (aunts) in this case refers to adults (usually already married) who are looking for sexual pleasure.