Javanese diaspora

The Javanese diaspora (Javanese: ꦣꦶꦪꦱ꧀ꦥꦺꦴꦫꦗꦮ; Indonesian: Diaspora Jawa) is the demographic group of descendants of ethnic Javanese who emigrated from the Indonesian island of Java to other parts of the world. The Javanese diaspora includes a significant population in Suriname, with over 13% of the country's population being of Javanese ancestry. Other major enclaves are found in French Guiana, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Javanese were likely part of the Austronesian migration to Madagascar starting in the first century CE. While the migration was dominated by the Ma'anyan people of Borneo, Javanese involvement is evidenced by an abundance of loanwords in the Malagasy language.

During the late 16th century, numerous Javanese fleeing conflict between the Demak, the Pajang, and the Mataram, migrated to Palembang in southern Sumatra. There they established a sultanate and formed a mix of Malay and Javanese culture. Palembang language is a dialect of Malay language with heavy Javanese influence.

The Javanese were present in Peninsular Malaya since early times. The link between Java and Malacca was important during spread of Islam in Indonesia, when religious missionaries were sent from Malacca to seaports on the northern coast of Java. Large migrations to the Malay Peninsula occurred during the colonial period, mostly from Central Java to British Malaya. Migration also took place from 1880 to 1930 from other parts of Java with a secondary migration Javanese from Sumatra. Those migrations were to seek a new life away from the Dutch colonists who ruled Indonesia at that time. Today these people live throughout Peninsular Malaysia and are mainly concentrated in parts of Johor, Perak and Selangor and cities such as Kuala Lumpur.

New migration patterns emerged during colonial periods. During the rise of VOC power starting in the 17th century, many Javanese were exiled, enslaved or hired as mercenaries for the Dutch colonies of Ceylon in South Asia and the Cape colony in South Africa. These included princes and nobility who lost their dispute with the company and were exiled along with their retinues. These, along with exiles from other ethnicities like Bugis and Malay became the Sri Lankan Malay and Cape Malay ethnic groups respectively.

Major migrations started during the Dutch colonial period under transmigration programs. The Dutch needed many labourers for their plantations and moved many Javanese under the program as contract workers, mostly to other parts of the colony in Sumatra. They also sent Javanese workers to Suriname in South America. As of 2019, approximately 13.7% of the Suriname population is of Javanese ancestry. Outside of the Dutch colonies, Javanese workers were also sent to plantations administrated by the Dutch colonial government in New Caledonia, a French territory.

The Javanese presence in Australia has been reported by native Southeast Asian and European people over several centuries. The most renowned record is from the itinerary of Chiaymasiouro, king of Demak, and Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Eredia. Chiaymasiouro describes a land called Luca Antara in Southeast direction of Java, which Eredia coined the term India Meridional (Meridional India - Southern/South India). According to Chiaymasiouro's accounts (1601 AD), a subgroup of Javanese people already settled in those lands, but when Eredia's servant went to Luca Antara in 1610, the land had seemingly been abandoned.

The migration of Malays in Cocos (Keeling) Islands are believed to have arrived and settled in the islands in 1826 "when Alexander Hare, an English merchant, brought his Malay harem and slaves there." Nowadays, this ethnic group made significant population, known as Cocos Malays. Cocos Malays are an ethnic group composed of ethnic groups originating from different places of the Malay Archipelago, including Javanese and Malays.