Malaysian Studies Project Report

MPW 2133 MALAYSIAN STUDIES

A SOCIAL STUDY ON RACIAL HOMOPHILY IN CAMPUS

BAVANI KOLAN DE VELU 12540

KOHILA MARIAPAN 12617RANI ELIZABETH MUTHU 12834RUSTAM TALIPOV 12262YASHADINI ANANDARAJAH 12899

DR RAJA AHMAD ISKANDAR RAJA YAAKOB

6TH APRIL 2012

[A Social Study on Racial Homophily in Campus] April 6, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3

LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................................4

PROBLEM STATEMENT........................................................................................................7

FINDINGS.................................................................................................................................8

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE...............................................................................................8

BAR CHART REPRESENTATION...................................................................................11

PIE CHART REPRESENTATION......................................................................................13

DATA ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................16

RECOMMENDATION...........................................................................................................19

CHALLENGES........................................................................................................................20

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................21

REFERENCE...........................................................................................................................22

APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................23

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INTRODUCTION

The notion of homophily is among the oldest and most recurrent in social science.

Homophily is defined as tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others.

The idea of homophily is very common in our society today. The pervasive fact of homophily

means that cultural, behavioral, genetic, or material information that flows through networks

will tend to be localized. Homophilous ties provide valuable sources of mutual support but

may limit racial minorities access to resources and information in organizations. Our study

case focuses on racial homophily issue among the UTP students. Students are the future of

the nation and also catalyst of the education business. They must work together in order to

achieve their academic goals in university such as scoring high in subjects and also

graduating with flying colors. Even though it seems like they merely depend on their

coordinator such as lecturers or tutors in their study, informal relations such as friendship

among coursemates is mutually important for their survival in university years. Students need

to have verbal communication and interact with each other during class hours. They will be

engaged in informal communication when it is out-side the formal time. The students manage

their activities such as group studying, discussion and work-related study formally by

managing them in accordance with the organizational rules and regulations, structure and

system. This will generate the formal relations among them. On the other hand, informal

communication between students exists when they are voluntary to mix up together in any

activities and keep interacting with each of the members in the group. Informal networks

such as cliques are developed based on the similar traits. It can be similar interest, hobby,

culture, language and etc. This relation developed is not to fulfill their formal endeavor, but

more on achieving their personal goals.

3


LITERATURE REVIEW

Today, universities around the world highly stress on racial homophily and it remains

as a key focus of attention with respect to diversity in education. The reasons for this to be in

place were already discussed in introduction part of this research. Such a focus on racial

diversity has provoked many related researches, in order to understand the issue deeper and

get some qualitative data for analysis of it. Studies of racial homophily and the past topic

related research reveals that interracial friendships are far less common than same race

friendships (Hallinan & Williams, 1989; Joyner & Kao, 2000; Lewis, 2012).

To avoid the problems of interpreting the consequences of attitudes, many studies

focus directly on actual relationships. Dubois and Hirsch (1990) asked respondents whether

or not they had other-ethnic friends. Patchen (1982) asked respondents how much they

interacted with other-ethnic peers. Sometimes a personal network approach was used to

determine the prevalence of inter-ethnic relationships. In these studies respondents were

asked to name their (for example, three) best friends and were then asked to indicate which

ethnic group each friend belonged to (Fong & Isajiw, 2000) and (Smith & Schneider, 2000).

The main limitation of these studies is that the number of other-ethnic friends or the ratio of

other-ethnic friends to same-ethnic friends says nothing about the respondent’s individual

inclinations because the studies did not control for the opportunities for relationships.

Because schools, neighborhoods, universities, etc. are often segregated, people often have

more opportunities to engage in relationships within their own group. They might, for

instance, prefer inter-ethnic relationships but still have more intra-ethnic than inter-ethnic

relationships because they live in a mono-ethnic neighborhood or visit a mono-ethnic school

(Baerveldt & Van Duijn, 2004). Some studies have tried to measure in-group preferences

using different, nonstandard questionnaires. For example, Kinket and Verkuyten

(1999) asked students to rate different ethnic groups on several attributes, such as honesty

and smartness. Verkuyten et al. (2006) asked students to rate different ethnic groups on how

much they would like to interact with a representative of these groups. Patchen

(2002) questioned students on a wide range of attitudes towards their own group and other

groups. Although these studies clarify some of the processes regarding the formation of intra-

ethnic preferences, they do not add to the explanation of ethnic boundaries. It is not clear how

people’s preferences relate to actual behavior since, depending on the circumstances, they

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may act very differently from their expressed attitudes, for instance, when they are pressured

by others.

Many of the researches were concentrated on finding out the reason for racial

segregation, yet conclusions were diversified. Thus, a preference for intra-ethnic relationships

could be explained by the social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979), which states that

people need to belong to a group with a special identity. For many people, ethnicity serves

this purpose. A social identity generally motivates people to accentuate their differences with

people in other groups rather than their similarities, augmenting prejudice rather than

diminishing it, and thus preventing inter-ethnic relationships from developing (Wimmer,

2010).

In order to show the importance of studying racial segregation, many researches were

conducted. In Social network integration during the college and university years could have a

long-term impact on broader racial integration in U.S. society. First, connections made during

the college years have lasting importance, as networks of strong and weak ties are formed

that can have substantial impact over the course of a lifetime. When students leave college,

the network becomes a web of ties. In a separate research entitled “When Does Race Matter

in College Friendships? Exploring Men's Diverse and Homogeneous Friendship Groups”, the

author states that the qualitative study explores how male students from different racial

backgrounds experience racial diversity within racially diverse or homogeneous friendship

groups. Based on an inductive analysis of purposive interviews, the author found that diverse

friendships among men may result from both an attitude of intentionality with regard to

diversity as well as a complete dismissal of difference. Similarly, racial homogeneity among

friends is not always intentional, nor does it necessarily lead to racial isolation (Antonio and

Lising, 2004)

In Malaysia, homophily in university was investigated under the research title of “ A

Test On Homophily As the Basis of Classroom’s Informal Networks” (N.K.Kamarunzaman

and A.A.Zawawi,2010). In their research, 10 homophilious factors were tested on 23 student

of Diploma Public Administration, UiTM Kedah. Later, the data were analyzed using the

UCINET6 program, a program used to analyze relational data. The formation of cliques was

the main finding of this test.In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a

group of 2 to 12 (averaging 5 or 6) “persons who interact with each other more regularly and

intensely than others in the same setting.” (Wikipedia). Some factors that propagated the

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formation of cliques include similar interests/hobbies, and the need to perform the same

task/assignment. Students tend to keep close contact with the assignment group mates as this

will help them attain both formal goals and personal interest, graduating as an example. Other

contributing factors were the use of same dialect/language and the family background.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

History shows that Malaya is a colonial creation with ethnic groups living side by side

but never mixed. Many factors have caused this situation. The first can be traced back to the

"divide and rule" policy during British colonization. This kind of administration greatly

limited interaction and communication among the different ethnic groups and segregated

them according to their economic functions. For example, the M a la ys w e re know n to

be f a rmer s l i v i ng in ru r a l a r ea s , Chinese were involved in the commercial and

mining sectors in urban areas while the Indians, on the other hand, worked as labourers in

estates and plantations.

The education system, as it was long before we know it today also varied according to

different ethnic groups in terms of curriculum and methods of dissemination. There was no

such thing as a standardized education system back then. Since these vernacular schools

comprised a single race, lessons were conducted in its respective language, such as Malay,

Mandarin and Tamil. Due to the inconsistencies and differences in the education system,

there existed barriers and gaps among the different races in Malaya.

All these shows that racial homophily has been happening before the Independence

Day itself during the colonization era by other countries and its effectscan still be clearly seen

in our current daily life. For example, in our campus,students tend to mix more with their

own race. The main objective of this test is to study racial homophily and the students’

awareness and opinion on this issue. The view of the younger generation on this matter is

essential as they are the future leaders of our country. We need to investigate both the short

and long term effect of racial homophily as it is one of the determination factors of our

country’s future development.

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FINDINGSSAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE

RACIAL HOMOPHILY – pervasive tendency of people to associate, mix with people of similar race or ethnicity as theirs.

1. Age Range

15-20

20-25

2. Gender

Male

Female

3. Race / Ethnicity

Malay

Chinese

Indian

Others. Please specify : _________

4. Are you aware of the homophily issue in our campus?

Yes

No

5. Rate the interracial relations / racial unity in our campus.

Poor

Average

Good

Excellent

6. Do you prefer mixing with your own race?

Yes

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No

If yes, why?

Language

Culture

Family background

All above

Other (please, state the other reason) ________________

7. How diverse is your close network of friends in terms of race?

Poor

Moderate

Good

Excellent

8. Does racial homophily have negative effects your study life in campus?

Yes

No

If yes state the reason_________________________________________________________

9. Do you think UTP is making any initiative to promote racial integration?

Yes

No

If yes, give an example _____________________________________________________________________

10. In your opinion, has a government project such as Satu Malaysia had any positive impact on you or people surrounding you?

Yes

No

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11. Is racial homophily threat for Nations (Malaysia) prosperous future?

Yes, strongly agree

Yes, to some extend

Maybe

I don't think so

12. Suggest steps to overcome this issue._____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

BAR CHART REPRESENTATION

10


15 - 20 years 20 - 25 years0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

15%

85%

Age Range

Age Range

Male Female0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

71%

29%

Gender

Gender

11


Malay Chinese Indian Others0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

19% 19% 19%43%

Race/Ethnicity

Race/Ethnicity

12


PIE CHART REPRESENTATION

76%

24%

Are you aware of the racial homophily issue in our campus?

YesNo

71%

29%

Do you prefer mixing with your own race?

YesNo

33%

57%

10%

Rate the interracial relations/ racial unity in our campus

PoorAverage GoodExcellent

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24%

43%

19%

14%

Why you prefer mixing with your own race?

LanguageCultureFamily BackgroundAll aboveOthers

14%

36%32%

18%

How diverse is your close network of friends in terms of race?

PoorModerateGood Excellent

48%52%

Does racial homophily have negative effects on ed-ucation?

YesNo

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46%54%

Do you think UTP is making any intiative to promote racial integration?

YesNo

55%45%

In your opinion, has a government project such as Satu Malaysia had any positive impact on you or

people surrounding you?

YesNo

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50%27%

23%

Is racial homophily threat for Nations (Malaysia) prosperous future?

Yes, strongly agreeYes, to some extendMaybeI don't think so

DATA ANALYSIS

In the survey conducted, around 15% of respondents are aged between 15-20 years

while the remaining 85% are in between the range 20-25 years old. All the respondents are

UTP students from different races or ethnicity. Besides, 71% are males and 29% of them are

females. We found that most of our respondents are aware of homophily issue in the campus.

They realized that certain people tend to mix with the people of similar race or ethnicity as

theirs. This can be noticed when some people form their own cliques to associate with

whenever they engaged in any activities. On the other hand, we have minority of the

respondents saying that they are not even aware of this issue. For them, homophily does not

really matter compare to other issues that are currently happening in the campus.

When we question all the respondents on the rate of racial unity in our campus, 57%

and 33% are saying that it is still at an average and poor level respectively. The remaining

10% of respondents vote for the good level. A very important point to note, nobody agrees

that rate of racial unity is excellent in UTP. This marks the inexistence of strong bond of

interactions among students from different races in UTP. We can clearly see that race and

ethnicity are the biggest divides in social networks in the campus. To be more specific, we

inquire the respondents whether they prefer mixing with their own race. As expected, 71% of

respondents prefer to mix with their own race. This is very common where most of them love

to stick with their clique and feel more comfortable around the people of same race. The

remaining 29% do not prefer mixing with their own race. We believe that these respondents

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are foreigners where they tend to mix up and socialize with the people from all races in our

country.

There are few reasons behind this issue. 43% of respondents are saying it’s because of

similar culture background. Theoretically, cultural differentiation leads to the

cultural convergence.The remaining think that both language and cultural are contributing to

homophily issue in UTP. Language plays a very important role as a medium of

communications among people. The primary function of language is undoubtedly to facilitate

interaction among people who may or may not come from different cultural

background. Students tend to interact more with the people from similar culture and language

thus neglecting those who are not in that circle.

Majority of the respondents think that racial homophily will have negative effect on

education. An example of this case would be sitting arrangement in classes where usually the

grouping would be based on race that is Malays will sit among the Malays, Chinese among

the Chinese and the same goes for Indians and foreign students. Another example would be in

doing group work such as projects or assignments. Students tend to choose group mates of

their own race. This can be due to the language barrier or maybe because they are more

comfortable with their friends of the same race. On the bright side, this can be something

good as students are able to express their opinion without having any difficulties in

understanding each other. This is because some students are more comfortable in talking

using their mother tongue rather than communicating in English. As a result, students can

participate more in the group work and thus perform better.

However, on the other hand, racial homophily will lead to poor networking among

races. Imagine having the freedom to choose your groupmate with the same race always.

There will be no harmony and no different opinion from different race or culture. Besides

that, your social of network will consist of only one race. Another thing is the narrow way of

understanding things when you only mix with students of the same race. One good thing you

can learn when you mix with other race is to learn other language such as improving your

English. All this will have long term effect on your student life. Without racial homophily,

you are able to improve your social skills when you mingle around. This can be very useful

for your future career where you will meet people from different part of the world.

Moving on to the next point, that is whether UTP is making any initiative to promote

racial integration. 46% agree with the statement while the remaining 54% disagree. Among

the efforts done by UTP is the organization of cultural events such as Indian Cultural Night,

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UTP Chinese Orchestra and International Cultural Night. All these are events which can

reduce social homophily not only by attending it but also maybe through the interactions

between the organizing committee. Besides that, UTP academic committee has also made it

compulsory for 3rd year student to take Engineering Team Project where students will be

divided into groups of students from different courses and races. This is a great effort taken

by UTP to promote integration between students from different courses and races. However,

based on our survey, we found out that some of the students are facing difficulties in

communicating. For example, an international student facing problem to communicate with

his team mates who are not fluent in English. This might end up affecting his grades. This

clearly shows the effect of racial homophily in education. Besides that, there are also student

bodies such as Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar (MPP) and International Student Council (ISC)

representing the local and foreign students which encourage multiracial students to join and

work together in voicing out students’ opinion. Indirectly, this will lead to a more integrated

community in UTP. Another important effort by UTP is the Mission Awareness Program

(MAP) with its objective to generate integration between UTP local and international

students. Through this program, international students are exposed to the local Malaysian

culture. So, what they gain through the camp can be useful in socializing with the locals.

Overall, we can say that UTP is making initiatives in promoting racial integration and we

should appreciate that but those efforts taken are just not sufficient or maybe we can say not

effective.

Not only UTP but government has also been taking initiatives to promote racial

integration. For instance, 1 Malaysia project by our prime minister. Based on our survey, we

found out that 55% respondents agree that this project has positive impact on us while the

remaining 45% disagree. The survey shows that there is a general acceptance of the

1Malaysia concept by UTP students overall, although each ethnic group in the campus has its

own narrow reservations. Those students who agree mentioned that the 1Malaysia concept

made them realise the importance of racial integration. It succeeded in creating awareness

among Malaysians from all walks of life. However, on the other hand the percentage of

students not agreeing to the statement is quite high as well. They think that the concept does

not really meet its purpose of promoting racial integration. For example, UTP students are

aware of the concept yet they still mix around with their own race rather than mixing with

everyone.

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One important question to think about, is racial homophily a threat for Malaysia’s

prosperous future? 50% respondents strongly agree while 27% agree to some extent. 23%

think that it is possible for racial homophily to be a threat and 0% disagree. Our country

Malaysia is a multiracial country. We can clearly see that leaders of our country now consist

of people from different races. Imagine having leaders who tend to mix around with their

own race. That can definitely lead to racism which focuses only on the benefits of their race

rather than focussing on the nation’s development. If there is no integration between races, it

can definitely affect the development and prosperity of the country. School or campus life is

the best place to get exposed to people from different races. Therefore, we must ensure that

students in our campus are aware of this issue.

RECOMMENDATION

As the study suggests, one of the main reason a test was conducted is obtain ways to

overcome the issue of racial homophily in campus, well in this case Universiti Teknologi

PETRONAS. Students have to be encouraged to have a perspective that emphasizes

performance rather than race,this mentality will indirectly abolish the need to be a racial

homophile. As education is a backbone of any individual,school is a good platform to

promote racial unity and curb racial homophily. The recommendation stated for this factor

was the abolishment of vernacular schools as it in a way promotes racial homophily. It is also

suggested that opting for building of more national schools are encouraged.

On the other hand, events that depict various cultures should be held. Events like

these will give chance to students to learn and accept other culture and race. As a result, a

understanding among the races will be created and the gap will be bridged. As an example,

food can be used as a culture promotion tool. Individuals of different races can organize

cultural potluck gathering where they can experience and learn cultures through food.

Besides that,educational talk shows that focuses on different races should be carried out. In

this case, students will be able to trade ideas and opinions on their cultural and racial

understanding. It will act as an essential platform for students to learn about other races. As a

result, racial homophily will be buried.

Since students are largely involved in groupworks as part of the studying process, it

is important that mixing between races is done to set up a group. This will build a diverse

19


atmosphere for the students to work in as there are racial integration and ideas will not be

biased. It is hoped that these ways will be executed successfully in the near future in order to

curb racial homophily for the betterment of the university,people and the nation.

CHALLENGES

In the process of completing our Malaysian Studies project entitled ‘A Social Study

on Racial Homophily in Campus’ we encountered many challenges. The most vivid

challenge was our group members consisting of two different courses. We are comprised of

mechanical engineering and civil engineering department, therefore fixing a meeting time

was tough. Even though with such hurdle we manage to successfully complete our project.

Next, our general topic was ‘social’; therefore there was a lot to choose from since

social issue is the current hype issue. But with crucial consideration our team members

settled with the topic ‘racial homophily’ which has always been a problem in every

community but ignored as always. Racial homophily is pervasive tendency of people to

associate, mix with people of similar race or ethnicity as theirs. Since this was not a mainly

studied topic in Malaysia, we had to surf through some challenges to obtain the research

paper on this topic.

While carrying out the interview on our respondents who were all UTP students

consisting of all ages and races, we found that many did not want to cooperate when it came

to video interview. But there were few students who offered to help us on our project and

gave a sincere interview which really made our process easier.

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The next step was to collect data obtained from the survey, interview and

journals/books. The challenges we had been here to come up with the method of

representation of the findings. We were supposed to come up with the best and most

comprehensible way of data representing because only then data analysis would be easy.

Lastly, in completing the report based on the survey, we had challenges in terms or

analyzing the findings collected. Since the outcomes are mostly assumed to be hypothetical

suggestion. But after few challenges our team members decided to think critically and find

solutions to our problem which is racial homophily.

CONCLUSION

Our major findings suggest that the homophily model applies exclusively to

all students in UTP. Though UTP students live in an environment with different cultures and

races among them, they could not be differentiated from their single-race counterparts

(statistically). Our evidence suggests that students seem to find their place among single-race

groups in spite of their identity asserting their racial difference. However, their specific

experiences of integration vary depending on their racial backgrounds. Due to this, it was

noted that none of the respondents chose excellent for racial unity in UTP. This marks the

inexistence of strong bond of interactions among students from different races in UTP.

Most of the respondents chose to mix with friends of their own race. One thing has to

be noted here, having friends of our own race will also have adverse impact in terms of

education. Since Education is the platform for all future undertakings it is very important for

a person to be exposed to all races so that he will get connections and widen his network.

This might be helpful in his future if he is able to bond with all races. At the same time, it

contributes to nation integration as well because a person who doesn’t build network during

study life would have difficulties in networking during work life. So education is a

foundation to strengthen nation through racial mixing. Many respondents mentioned that

21


aspects like culture and languages are barriers to students mixing among their own races. We

have to realize that we are now living in 21st century where every detail is just at our finger

tips. So aspects like language and culture should not come in between networking.

Steps should be taken to curb this outrageously growing racial homophily issue. It

should start as early as at home so that kids can discipline and practice themselves. Parents

should be expose kids to other culture and educate them in a good and limited manner.

Sending kinds to language classes might also help kids to boost the confidence thus

networking skills too. Whereas in schools, kids should be nurtured to mix around in groups

consisting of students of different races and of various culture. This will automatically train

them to share ideas on different things. Malaysia is a country occupied by people of different

nations, races and culture so it should be easier for us to start curbing this issue.

REFERENCE

[ 1 ] Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. Homophily. Retrieved from; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophily

[ 2 ] Kamaruzaman N. Z., Zawawi A. A. (2010). A test of homophily as basis of classroom informal networks Conference on Science and Social Research (CSSR 2010) Retrieved: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5773901

[ 3 ] Burgess S., Sanderson E., Umana –Aponte M. (2011). School ties: An analysis of homophily in an adolescent friendship network. University of Bristol. Retrieved from; http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2011/wp267.pdf

[ 4 ] Mollica K. A., Gray B., Trevino Trevino L. K. (2003). Racial Homophily and its persistace in Newcomers’ Social network. Organization Science. 14:123-136 Retrieved from; http://orgsci.journal.informs.org/content/14/2/123.abstract

[ 5 ] Wimmer A., Lewis K. (2010). Beyond and below racial homophily: ERG models of a friendship network documented on FACEBOOK. American Journal of Sociology. Volume 2, No 16, 583-642. Retrieved from: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/wimmer/WimmerLewis.pdf

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http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/wimmer/WimmerLewis.pdf

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2011/wp267.pdf

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5773901

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophily


[ 6 ] Doyle M. J., Kao G. (2004). Friendship choices of multiracial adolescents: Racial homophily, blending or concession. Retrieved from: http://www.socsc.smu.edu.sg/events/Paper/Grace_kao.pdf

[ 7 ] Currarini S., Jackson M. O., Pin. P. (2009). Identifying source of racial homophily in highschool friendship networks. Retrieved from: http://www.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/racialhomophily.pdf

[ 8 ] The social pathologist. Retrieved from: http://socialpathology.blogspot.com/2011/04/homophily-and-psychological- entropy.html

[ 9 ] Gresenz C. R., Rogowsi J. Escarce J. J. (2009). Comunity demographics and access to health care among U.S Hispanics. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2754547/

APPENDIX

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http://www.socsc.smu.edu.sg/events/Paper/Grace_kao.pdf

Documents

Malaysian Studies Project Report