Toward transnational identity? The reconstruction of Hakka identity in Thailand

The Hakka people (Hakkas) are a global cultural ethnic group. This article explored the experiences of the Hakkas in Thailand. One major ethnic minority in Thailand is the Chinese people (14 percent of the total population) who engage in businesses and commerce throughout the country. Fifty-six percent of the Chinese are Chaozhounese, and 16 percent are Hakkas. This article argued that the Thai-Hakka identity is a transnational construction mobilized by multiple agencies at the local, national, and global levels. This identity is a result of the negotiation from the common motherland (China) in the past, the new modern Hakka discourse and the multicultural policy (Taiwan), and the complex ethnic experiences and interactions in everyday life (Thailand). Compared to the traditional diaspora viewpoint (pluri-locally distributed, with a strong identity to the motherland), the Thai-Hakka identity has gravitated towards a new path of transnational identity (pluri-locally distributed, without a clear centre–periphery relation).     

Ethno-Religious Mobilisation and Citizenship Discourse in the People's Republic of China

In the post-Cold War world, 'identity politics' is seen by many as posing the greatest threat to peace and political institutions, liberal or otherwise. In light of the carnage of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and former Soviet republics, cultural identity politics would seem to be a politics, or antipolitics, of the most virulent and savage sort. Yet research conducted among three Chinese minority nationalities - the Dai, Bai and Muslim Hui of Yunnan Province - reveals that the relationship between cultural activism and minority nationalist sentiment is not always so clear-cut. I show that such activism, which includes linguistic promotion and religious education, can in fact express claims derived from a national political identity, a conception of minority membership in the Chinese national community. Certain instances of minority cultural activism are efforts to put teeth into the party-state's promises of autonomy and to reject the stereotype of shaoshu minzu as backward and uncivilised. Such activism is thus a means of asserting minorities' rightful place in the contemporary Chinese body politic. At the same time, such cultural activism may cement cross-national ethnic and religious identities, thereby consolidating the material and ideological resources that make anti-state behaviour more feasible. Even when cultural activism shows acceptance of inclusive nation-state norms, minority inclusion may be limited by the behaviour and attitudes of the state, or by the content of national identity itself. In discussing these issues, minority cultural activism will also be juxtaposed with a very different sort of ethnic mobilisation, one which does pose a serious threat to the integrity of Chinese boundaries and the ability of the state to enforce its rule. The paper thus also shows how ethnicity within Yunnan Province can be a resource for anti-state behaviour, even when the aims of such actions are not ethnic in content.     

Ethnic mobilization in a multicultural society

The aim of the present paper is to demystify those anxieties that emerge out of the presence of ethnic minorities in developed capitalist societies in showing that these relate as much, if not more, to misconceptions about the issue of identity proper, that of national identity, as well as that of ethnic mobilization. It is argued that the relationship of immigrant minority cultures and identities to national culture and national identity can be thought of as paralleling that between class structures and identities. Ethnic mobilisation and ethnic movements can be thought of in terms of something like the class‐in‐itself problematic Ethnic groups can be seen as having a particular and distinct position in relation to economic and political resources, but whereas classes in the Marxian sense must develop their sense of identity, their forms of organisation and their culture ab initio, ethnic groups can call upon their sense of ethnicity and their forms of ethnic bonding as a resource and this may well make them more effective political actors than classes. However, whereas it is tempting, within this framework to think that out of a process of negotiation, there will emerge a multicultural society in which there is on the one hand a shared political culture of the public domain and on the other a world of private communal cultures, the actual situation is much more complex. What ethnic minorities in actuality confront is a hierarchy of cultures which have already been involved in a political struggle for the definition of a disputed shared political culture. This is bound to influence the process and character of ethnic mobilization as well as its likely outcomes.     

Ethnic nominalism and civic religiosity: Christianity and national identity in Britain

The relationship between religion and national identity is a contested topic in public debates about cultural diversity and immigration. In sample surveys only a minority the British population identify themselves as belonging to a Christian religion, and far fewer practise their faith. Nevertheless, nearly a quarter of the population think it is important to be Christian to be truly British. This study explores the complex relationships between religious and national identities in Britain, using data from the 2008 British Social Attitudes Survey. Three different forms of national identity were identified through factor analysis: civic‐symbolic, cultural‐aesthetic and ethnic national identity. Ethnic national identity is the only dimension of national identity that is positively associated with thinking it is important to be Christian to be British. While churchgoing Christians are more likely to feel national in response to secular cultural symbols, they are less likely to associate religion with nationality than those with a nominal Christian affiliation. The results indicate that Christianity has cultural significance for national identity primarily as a proxy for ethnic identity.     

Thailand's Khmer as ‘invisible minority’: Language,ethnicity and cultural politics in north-eastern Thailand

Ethnic Khmer speakers in Thailand number over a million. Yet, despite their large numbers, they are regarded as an ‘invisible minority’, largely inconspicuous in the nation's arena of cultural politics. Their invisibility has, to some extent, to do with their overall cultural similarity with surrounding ethnic Lao speakers of Thailand's north-eastern ‘Isan’ region; like Isan Lao, they are syncretic Theravada Buddhists, and their village life revolves around wet rice agriculture. Such similarity contrasts with the conspicuous differences marking other minorities of Thailand, such as the Muslims in the south, or highlanders in the north. But Khmer invisibility is also the result of cultural politics at the national level, and with the specific histories of these nation-states in the modern period. This paper examines the apathy towards Khmer identity in Thailand, both in the historical context of Thai nation-building and in specific language policies and practices.     

Constructing border ethnic identities along the frontier of Central and Eastern Europe

The analysis is based on an empirical sociological study (interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union Project) aimed at exploring the various aspects of people’s diaspora affiliations and their ethnic and national identity on the Eastern borderland of Europe. We surveyed ethnic minority groups in eight countries along the frontier of Central Eastern Europe. With the ethnic minorities having a similar ethnic status along the border, we demonstrated how ethnic minorities ‘deal’ with their minority status in their ‘host’ country. The analysis reconstructs the image of the ethnic minority at the societal level. We model personal and collective ethnic identities as a stock of knowledge based on cognitive and affective components, and test them along the different ethnic dyads. The paper shows how successive generations are able to transfer the pattern of ethnic identity within the family, and also how language use practices and personal networks play a role in preserving personal ethnic identity.     

Jewish-Arab relations in Israel: Perceptions,emotions, and attitudes of university students of education

This study reports on the perceptions, emotions and attitudes of 172 Jewish and Arab undergraduate and graduate students of education concerning their own national identity, the intergroup relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and the desired political solution for the Arab minority in Israel. Against the background of the continuously changing political situation that involves advances and drawbacks in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the perceptions, emotions and attitudes of future educators concerning the Jewish-Arab conflict seem important as a foundation for strengthening pupils' orientation towards equality and pluralism. Results are presented concerning four domains: identity markers of students in the two groups, intergroup perceptions and emotions manifested in indicators of social distance, Jewish students' attitudes towards cultural autonomy of the Arab minority, and opinions concerning a desired political solution. The findings are discussed in light of the characteristics of the sample, in relation to previous studies that asked similar questions, and in relation to the processes taking place in the region in the last few years.     

Pathways to Adolescent Political Participation across Race and Ethnicity

This study assesses impacts of racial/ethnic identification on adolescent civic development to inform interventions to counter civic disconnect on the part of ethnic minority youths. Analyses of 4 years of national Monitoring the Future data find that Black and Latino adolescents hold negative political attitudes and low rates of political behavior. Structural equation models find dissimilarities in paths between political attitudes and behaviors for White, Black, Latino, and Asian adolescents. Findings suggest that political attitudes may operate as precursors to political behavior in different ways across races/ethnicities. Implications for civic interventions and future minority youth civic development research are discussed.     

The Thai Lao question: the reappearance of Thailand’s ethnic Lao community and related policy questions

This article presents an anatomy of the 2011 Thailand Country Report to the Committee responsible for the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in which Thailand recognized its largest ethnic minority community, the Thai Lao, to the international community. The article analyses the Country Report as well as the deliberations of the Committee in dialogue with the Thailand Country Delegation. It provides a policy context for the Country Report, including Thailand’s classification of ethnic communities. The article argues the need to minimize racialized discrimination as regards the Thai Lao. Five policy issues, framed in the context of inclusion and which arise from the recognition of the Thai Lao by the Country Report, are considered. The article concludes by discussing how the Thai Lao may be better included in Thailand via political developments towards a social democracy in Thailand, for social democracy can recognize sociocultural rights.     

What’s the matter with being Indonesian? A social representation approach to unravelling Indonesian national identity / ¿Qué significa ser indonesio? Una perspectiva de la representación social para desentrañar la identidad nacional indonesia

Due to its diverse nature, being an Indonesian is sometimes confusing as it entails overlapping national, ethnic and religious identity. By using a social representation approach, online survey research involving 114 Indonesians was carried out to explore these questions: How do Indonesians negotiate their ethnic, religious and national identity? What identity markers should one possess to claim being an Indonesian? And lastly, who is the nationalist? Research findings suggest that national and ethnic identity as well as ethnic and religious identity were consensual, while the relation between religious and national identity was emancipated. It is also found that being a Muslim and possessing a stronger sense of ethnic identity would increase the likelihood of being a prouder Indonesian, while being a female, living abroad for 5–10 years, being a nationalist Muslim and embracing transnational Islamic movements reduced the probability of having a stronger sense of national identity.     

Ethnic Mobilization in south Tyrol: A primordial identity in crisis

South Tyrol and the German minority are portrayed as one of the most successful forms of ethnic mobilization in Western Europe. Its distinct historic roots and the related symbolic codes of collective identity formation can be seen as a classical example for territorially‐based minority politics. On the basis of a constructivist approach the thesis is developed that the primordial collective identity, dominant in South Tyrol, has generated very particular patterns of ethnic mobilization and conflict. On the one hand, it has secured the intransigent protest of the German population fighting an enforced Italianization ‘ over decades. On the other hand, however, this firm of collective identity is simultaneously fostering the recent crisis of ethnic politics in South Tyrol. The more general argument is made that in highly modem, European‐oriented society a primordial understanding of ethnic loyalty is no longer able to provide stable patterns of social integration and political loyalty. In this respect, the South Tyrolean case is interpreted as an example of how primordial patterns of collective identity and related political mobilization tend to lose their firm base in highly modern society.     

Reconsidering identity: the ethnic and political dimensions of hybridity among majority and Turkish youth in Germany and England1

Sociological research has hitherto largely focused on majority ² and minority ethnic identities or citizenship identities. However, the social connections between youth are not simply ethnic dynamics but also political dynamics involving citizenship categories. This article argues that in postmodern societies, it is important to reconsider the ways we think about youth identities. Drawing upon qualitative data from a study into the political identities of majority (German and British) youth and Turkish youth, educated in two Stuttgart and two London secondary schools, the research found that fifteen‐year‐olds had no singular identity but hybrid ethno‐national, ethno‐local and national‐European identities as a result of governmental policies, their schooling and community experience, social class positioning, ethnicity and migration history. In working‐class educational contexts, many majority and Turkish youth privileged the ethnic dimension of hybridity whereas majority and Turkish youth in the two middle‐class dominated schools emphasized the political dimension of hybridity. The article demonstrates that social class and schooling (e.g. ethos and peer cultures) have a considerable role to play in who can afford to take on the more hybridized cosmopolitan identities on offer.     

Being Han in a multi-ethnic region of the People’s Republic of China

This article draws on ethnographic material collected in Yangzong county of Yunnan, a province well known for its ethnic diversity. It deals with how the members of this peripheral Han population are categorised by others and by themselves in relation to minority groups and notions of Chinese identity. The specificity of the Han of Yangzong is framed by an ongoing tension between two contrasting points of view: they appear both as a local ethnic minority among others, and, notably by means of ritualised theatrical representations, as the legitimate representatives of the national majority. The Han people of Yunnan, who represent two-thirds of the province’s population, have been largely ignored by contemporary research. However, this study sheds light on the necessary interplay of different levels of identity and asserts the understanding of the category of ‘Han’ as perceived by the Chinese State as well as by the local people.     

Politics beyond identity: reconsidering the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland

The Northern Irish civil rights movement, like other minority or subaltern struggles, has been interpreted in terms of the national minority’s struggle for state recognition. Such frameworks emphasise the importance of identity in political conflict and tend to assume the state as guarantor of the recognition of identity. The difficulty here is that political possibilities that exceed the terms of identity and the state are obscured. Moreover, the interpretation of the Northern Irish conflict in these terms forms part of the consociational approach to conflict resolution which operates as normative underpinning to the post-conflict state. This article provides an alternative interpretation of the political significance of the civil rights movement. Rather than assuming the analytical usefulness and political significance of identity, I seek to trace the tension between identity and disidentification within the movement, drawing attention to the ways in which activists were aware of, and sought to respond to, the dangers of identity politics.     

Rethinking assimilation and ethnicity: the Chinese in Thailand

US theoretical models of assimilation of ethnic groups within a larger culture usually assume a unilinear, unidimensional process, which is simplistic, does not account for the persistence of ethnicity, and oversimplifies the process of social change. The argument is advanced that ethnic identity is both primordial and situational (a private sense that is self-maintaining, cumulative, deepening, and self-affirming). Typically, a person has one primary ethnic identity, but where ethnic boundaries overlap, there is instrumental identity. Chinese in Thailand mostly adopt Thai values, speak the Thai language, go to Thai schools, join Thai associations, and celebrate Thai religious festivals. Their secondary identity as Chinese is integrated into their associations with other Chinese and in the home through the use of the Chinese language. Their Chinese identity appears also in ancestor worship. There are symbiotic relationships between native Thais and Chinese Thais along class lines. The Chinese are known to have great financial and economic resources, while the Thais have political and administrative control. These differences with the power elites separate the Chinese from the Thais and interfere with assimilation. The power is balanced. If the Chinese gained in political and administrative power, the balance would be upset, and the interests of both groups would be threatened. The view of Whitten and Whitten acknowledges that individuals and groups act to make the best of the situation and are not merely victims of social forces. Actions are maintained and resisted. The important consideration in theory-building is not the terms of assimilation but the terms specifying the conduct of the group as a whole and as individuals in daily social interactions. The theoretical discussion focuses on border crossings, the Skinner view of the Chinese, bilingualism and cultural education, socioeconomic organizations, occupational differences, and religion, tradition, and ethnic identification.     

Ethnic identities and national identities: Some examples from Malaysia

Using examples from Malaysia, this paper emphasizes the importance of relating ethnicity to the power of the state and political processes involving different ethnic groups. Ethnic group formation involves processes that make people identify as an imagined community in a nation‐state. Indeed, the processes that create ethnic and national identities are part and parcel of the same historical processes. It is also necessary to relate national identity to ethnicity, as national identity is imagined differently by different ethnic groups in a nation‐state. The paper describes Malay and Chinese ethnicity as well as the complex ethnic identification and ethnogenesis of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak.     

Cultural hybrids or ethnic fundamentalists? discourses on ethnicity in Singaporean SMEs

This paper examines national and ethnic discourses within Singaporean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the ambiguities and dichotomies characterising Singaporean national and ethnic identity. Singapore is represented officially as a multi‐ethnic state with a Chinese majority which claims to integrate minority groups such as Indians and Malays successfully, and it boasts a generalised Singaporean culture and identity that supposedly embrace the racial and ethnic diversity of the population. However, Singapore also hosts tensions and conflicts associated with such diversity. This paper examines workplace discourses which address tensions and congruencies. The paper is based on research conducted between April 2002 and May 2003, involving 50 SMEs representing various sectors of the economy and constituting various ethnicities. The research found that, while discourses on ethnicity and nationality may be characterised as somewhat ‘shifting’ and ‘fluid’, the respondents present their identities as rather fixed. Primordial ties rather than postmodern multiplicity may better characterise discourses among the workers and owners of Singaporean SMEs.     

Organizations,coalitions, and movements

This article uses empirical evidence on networks of voluntary organizations mobilizing on ethnic minority, environmental, and social exclusion issues in two British cities, to differentiate between social movement processes and other, cognate collective action dynamics. Social movement processes are identified as the building and reproducing of dense informal networks between a multiplicity of actors, sharing a collective identity, and engaged in social and/or political conflict. They are contrasted to coalitional processes, where alliances to achieve specific goals are not backed by significant identity links, and organizational processes, where collective action takes place mostly in reference to specific organizations rather than broader, looser networks.     

Exploring How National Politics Influences the Outcome of Intergroup Contact among Muslim Minority Members

This article adds to the existing research in intergroup contact among ethnic minority members by hypothesizing that national political debate has the capacity to enhance the positive outcomes of cross‐group interaction. Analyses show that the capacity of intergroup contact to reduce prejudice toward majority members is disproportionately stronger among Muslims than among non‐Muslim minority members. Specifically, at the time of data collection, the two categories—Muslims and majority members—were highly salient in the public debate, whereas the non‐Muslim minority member category was not primed as a contrast to the majority culture. The political debate most likely stimulated Muslims to generalize their positive contact experiences to the entire majority group. The analysis contributes to the theoretical refinement of the so‐called categorization model by focusing on politically induced reactions among contacted ethnic minority members toward majority members. The analysis utilizes a tailor‐made national sample (fielded during the Mohammad Cartoon Crisis in 2006) among ethnic minority members in Denmark (N  = 3,272).     

Cross‐border,cross‐ethnic,and transnational networks of a trapped minority: Israeli Arab citizens in Tel Aviv‐Jaffa

In this article, I provide a framework for studying the transnational networks of minority members as a political phenomenon. I make two claims. First, it is necessary to take into account the state and its capacity to limit transnational networks if one is to capture, analytically, the full range of such networks. Second, it is important to extend the theoretical framework of transnationalism to include populations other than migrants and to account for networks established by national minority members whose loyalty to the state can be challanged. I offer a typology of networks organized along two major axes – the state in‐border–cross‐border axis and the ethnic or religious identity axis. These two axes yield different types of in‐border and cross‐border, intranational and transnational networks. I base these claims on an analysis of four case studies of cross‐border and cross‐ethnic networks maintained by Israeli Palestinian citizens in Tel Aviv‐Jaffa.