Ethnic Socialization: A Case of Malaysian Malay and Chinese Public Universities Students Experiences

By and large, Malaysians associate themselves with certain ethnic identities. Such identification is clearly visible in most Malaysian public universities. This paper relates Malaysian Malay and Chinese public universities students' ethnic identification to their ethnic socialization experiences. Focus group discussions with Malay and Chinese students were conducted in four Malaysian public universities. Outcomes from the focus group discussions reveal the roles of cultural and competition socialization experiences in constructing the students ethnic identity. These ethnic socialization experiences played an important role in constructing ethnic consciousness among the students. Index Terms—Ethnic, ethnic identity, ethnic socialization