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Migration can contribute to economic growth. Its impact on ethnic diversity may also generate socio-cultural tensions and political instability. Having said that, ethnic diversity can play a role in both promoting and hindering economic growth depending on its form and extent. This role often rests on the levels of either ethnic fractionalization (usually related to higher economic growth) or ethnic polarization (more commonly associated with lower economic growth). Such considerations raise a question about the ways ethnic diversity mediates the relationship between internal migration and economic growth. The following paper responds to that question by focusing on different regions of Indonesia. Drawing on comprehensive statistics and updated classification of Indonesia's ethnic groups, it presents new evidence on the archipelago's ethnic diversity which is cross-referenced with recent fractionalization and polarization indexes. This methodological enhancement allows the study to translate with a greater degree of accuracy the mediation of ethnic diversity on the relationship between internal migration and economic growth across Indonesia's regions than previously carried out. What emerges is a rather mixed picture of the intermediating role of ethnic diversity. There is a significant influence in various regions, but different sets of variables also modulate the relationship in others. We can also discern an identifiable link between the economic region in question, the indicators of ethnic diversity referenced, and the given rate of migration. Placed in composite relief, the findings draw attention to the uneven and complex character of Indonesia's regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new statistics to the debate on percentage of Chinese Indonesians, using the latest 100% data set of the 2010 population census. It reveals that the statistics is closer to the low side of the debate, less than 2.0%, rather than the high side of 3.0% and more. Ethnicity is here self-defined by the respondents. With 1.2%, the Chinese Indonesians ranked as the 15th largest group of more than 600 ethnic groups. This paper also produces statistics at the district level, the first ever statistics on Chinese Indonesians. It finds that some provinces and districts have large percentages of Chinese Indonesians, but the respective total population are relatively small to the total Indonesia’s population. Majority of provinces and districts (25 out of 33 provinces and 415 out of 497 districts) have lower percentage of Chinese than the national figure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ethnicity used to be a political taboo in Indonesia, a country with more than 600 ethnic groups, but this has changed since the advent of the Reform era (1998). The government of Indonesia (through Statistics-Indonesia) included a question on ethnicity in its 2000 population census, and continued in the 2010 census. This paper produces the first estimates of ethnic diversity at the national, provincial, and district levels using tabulations provided by Statistics-Indonesia based on the full enumeration data set of the 2010 Indonesia Population Census. It analyzes three measurements of ethnic diversity: the percentage of the largest ethnic group, Ethnic Fractionalization Index (EFI), and Ethnic Polarization Index (EPOI). This paper provides a quantitative start for further studies to link ethnic diversity with many social, economic, and political variables, including studies on the dynamics of ethnic diversity. We conclude that Indonesia is relatively ethnically fractionalized, though not as polarized. Among provinces and districts, we have seen a continuum ranging from ethnically homogeneous to heterogeneous, from the least fractionalized to the most fractionalized, and from the least polarized to the most polarized province or district. Variation in ethnic diversity is also seen across islands although provinces and districts in the Island of Java are more likely to be homogeneous, less fractionalized and less polarized than provinces and districts outside Java Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]