Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Stratification in Suriname in 2012

This paper examines the relative socio-economic positions of ethnic groups in Suriname. Our results are based on data from the nationally representative survey Status attainment and Social Mobility in Suriname 2011-2013 (N=3929). The respondents are divided into eight groups on the basis of self-identification: Natives, Maroons, Hindustanis, Javanese, Creoles, Chinese, Mixed and Others (mainly immigrants). We measure the socio-economic positions of the ethnic groups based on education and occupation and assess historical changes using cohort, intergenerational and lifecycle comparisons. The data allow us to create an ethnic hierarchy based on the social-economic criteria that we have used. We show that Hindustanis, Javanese and Creoles are ranked in the middle of the social stratification system of Suriname, but that Creoles have rather more favourable positions than the other two groups. Natives and Maroons are positioned at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, and together – with almost 20% of the population - they form a sizeable lower class, also, and in increasing numbers in urban areas. At the top of the Surinamese social ladder, we find a large group of Mixed, together with the small groups of Chinese and Others. The rank order in the stratification system is historically stable. Still, there are also clear signs of convergence between the ethnic groups, in particular, when we compare the generations of respondents with their parents. We conclude that existing stratification research has been unduly restricted to the middle groups, which, although they are the largest, do not account for more than 60% of the total population. The core of the stable socio-economic hierarchy of the Surinamese ethnic groups lies in the fact that there are persistent differences in education that divide the ethnic groups.