JAKARTA: When his Jakarta-based parents read about Indonesia’s new global citizenship scheme, S. Eyan said they sent it to him in the hope that he might apply.
But the 38-year-old Singaporean freelance content creator had to let them down – he told them he would not be signing up for the Global Citizenship of Indonesia (GCI) scheme, a stand-in for dual citizenship for the country’s diaspora.
“It’s a nice gesture, but I don’t think it will convince anyone to move back,” said Eyan.
He moved to Singapore at 10, studied there and completed national service in the Singapore Armed Forces, and is now a Singapore citizen.
The scheme, officially launched in Jakarta on Jan 26, is designed to formalise ties with Indonesia’s millions-strong diaspora without reopening a long-sensitive policy debate.
With the principle of single citizenship embedded in Indonesia’s nation-building narrative, the country has long rejected calls to allow dual nationality.
Yet for many people of Indonesian descent who have made their home overseas, the scheme, which offers legal status without substantive rights, does little to alter decisions shaped by work opportunities, quality of life and long-term security.
Such individuals and their children told The Straits Times that while they continue to maintain strong emotional and cultural ties to Indonesia, citizenship status is not what anchors their sense of belonging.
More needs to be done to address structural factors shaping such choices, they said.
Indeed, experts warn that Indonesia’s brain drain is caused less by citizenship rules than by gaps in opportunity and long-term security.
New scheme, old problems
Unveiled in November 2025, the GCI scheme is open to foreign passport holders who were previously Indonesian citizens, as well as their spouses, children and grandchildren.
It is estimated that Indonesia’s global diaspora comprises roughly six million to nine million Indonesians and their descendants, although it is not clear how many of them have renounced their citizenship.
While some quietly retain Indonesian nationality after taking up foreign citizenship, many have let this go, with their children growing up without Indonesian citizenship.
The government has framed the new scheme as an alternative to dual citizenship that stops short of reopening such a political hot potato. Among its benefits are lifetime residency with an unlimited stay and a multiple re-entry permit.
Government officials have cited India’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) programme as an inspiration for GCI.
Launched in 2006, the OCI scheme grants permanent residency to people of Indian origin and their spouses, allowing them to live and work in India indefinitely, and permits land ownership except for agricultural property. India, whose diaspora is at an estimated 30 million people, has issued more than five million OCI cards to date.
Applicants to Indonesia’s global citizenship scheme must show proof of at least US$15,000 in annual income, or US$1,500 a month, among other requirements. They are also required to pay an application fee starting from 34.8 million rupiah (US$2,075).
The GCI scheme has not been off to a flying start. Applications opened in late December 2025; it has received only seven applications as at Jan 26.
Immigration and Corrections Minister Agus Andrianto disclosed the figure on Jan 26 and said the scheme would be refined to better suit potential applicants, without revealing more.
For Eyan, the scheme lacks appeal because it does not offer “good enough” benefits, such as tax incentives and the right to own land, which are deal-breakers for many in the diaspora.
Under current rules, foreign nationals are barred from buying land and houses in Indonesia, although they may own apartments through leasehold arrangements.
Both Eyan and Yen Liany, also a Singaporean whose parents are from Jakarta, said the visitor visa they use to enter Indonesia during Chinese New Year or to visit family is enough for their purposes. This 30-day visa is free for Singaporeans and is extendable for another 30 days.
Yen, a 28-year-old working in the media industry, said she does not see the scheme’s appeal. “Paying for what is basically a longer visa doesn’t make sense to me. I’m already fine using tourist visas whenever I visit,” she said.
It would be a different story if the scheme allowed her to buy a house near her parents’ home.
With GCI, Indonesia wants to show it is willing to engage with the diaspora, but its scope is too narrow to be enticing, said Virdika Rizky Utama, executive director of Jakarta-based think-tank PARA Syndicate.
“Diaspora members see GCI as recognition, but not as a tool that gives them meaningful rights or incentives. The scheme is cautious, reflecting political sensitivities at home, but it does not yet create a new model of engagement,” he said.
Indonesian identity?
The push to engage the diaspora comes amid signs of more young Indonesians wanting to leave the country.
In 2025, the hashtag “KaburAjaDulu”, or “just run away first”, went viral. The same year, a survey by research firm Populix found that out of 1,000 respondents who said they wanted to leave the country, 82 per cent cited the prospect of higher income overseas, while 62 per cent said they wanted career development and 61 per cent said they wanted a better quality of life.
Most respondents were aged between 18 and 35, held at least a diploma or university degree, and came from middle-class or higher socio-economic backgrounds. Such a demographic profile has heightened concerns about brain drain.
Dr Charlotte Setijadi of The University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, who has done much research on Indonesian diaspora politics, said migrants from sucg middle to upper class backgrounds have been seeking more recognition from the Indonesian government in the last 15 years, and have been pushing for Indonesia to recognise dual citizenship.
Indonesia allows limited dual citizenship for children born to married couples where one spouse is Indonesian and the other is a foreign national, until the children reach adulthood. In 2022, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights recorded 13,092 such children, but latest figures have not been made available.
In 2023, Indonesian immigration data revealed that nearly 4,000 Indonesians took up Singapore citizenship between 2019 and 2022, drawn by government scholarships and stronger career opportunities in the Republic. More updated figures have not been made available.
Based on her conversations with Indonesian government officials on this topic, Dr Setijadi said she doubted that the country will adopt dual citizenship any time soon.
While the idea has resurfaced periodically, it has struggled to gain traction.
In April 2024, National Economic Council of Indonesia chairman Luhut Pandjaitan, who was then Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, said the government was studying the possibility of allowing dual citizenship to attract global talent. Similar calls were made in 2016, when then President Joko Widodo publicly backed the idea as a way to stem brain drain.
Both efforts, however, ran up against constitutional, legal and ideological barriers, including long-held concerns over divided loyalties.
Officials often point to the 1928 Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge), which is considered one of the linchpins of Indonesian nationalism and an important step towards eventual independence. The pledge specifies one homeland, nation and language.
“This one-homeland aspect of the ideological understanding of what constitutes an Indonesian already forms an ideological barrier to considering dual nationality as something the government can potentially allow,” Dr Setijadi said.
Ziauddin Dzilmi Yusuf, 19, is someone who takes the Youth Pledge to heart.
Ziauddin, an international management student at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, said that he was planning to stay in Japan after he graduated because he felt that the country had more opportunities than Indonesia.
“Working in Japan with our Japanese skills – and of course we can speak English and Indonesian as well – gives us the advantage of speaking more than two languages, which makes us much more appreciated in Japan and other foreign countries (compared with Indonesia),” he told ST.
But when asked if he would ever consider giving up Indonesian citizenship in the future, Ziauddin’s reply was a resounding “no”, despite recognising that there would be several advantages to becoming a Japanese citizen.
“I still feel like my roots are in Indonesia,” he said. “I know how unstable my country is and how bad the government can be, but regardless of that, I still want to contribute and dedicate my life to Indonesia.”
Augusta Pattiradjawane, 72, who has lived in Melbourne, Australia, since 1982, said she felt the same urge to contribute to her home country, despite renouncing her Indonesian citizenship in 2018.
She said she decided to become an Australian citizen only after her daughter moved to the United Kingdom.
“After I became an Australian citizen, and started using an Australian passport, everything became much smoother, there was no issue going anywhere,” she told ST. “But in my heart of hearts, I don’t want (to give up Indonesian citizenship).”
Indonesia’s brain drain is driven less by citizenship rules than by deeper structural gaps at home, said Virdika.
“The decisive factors are wages, research ecosystems and long-term career security,” he said, adding that these continue to weigh more heavily on decisions to stay abroad than legal status alone, limiting the impact of schemes such as GCI.
Dr Setijadi expressed similar views. “Job creation locally, providing better opportunities for young people, and dealing with structural inequalities domestically is the most important thing,” she said.
For overseas Indonesians, what matters most is being able to build a global career while keeping secure ties to home, said Beltsazar Krisetya, a politics and social change researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
This is done through clear rules on residency, work, property and family rights, and Beltsazar said Indonesia needs to treat its overseas citizens as long-term partners who can contribute skills, ideas and networks.
Without such a shift, Indonesia risks falling behind in the competition for talent. “That would leave the country at a disadvantage compared with regional peers that offer more flexible citizenship or permanent status regimes to attract and keep globally mobile talent,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
