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The Transnational Identities of Sri Lankan Migrants in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

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Citizenship in Transnational Perspective

Part of the book series: Politics of Citizenship and Migration ((POCM))

Abstract

Sri Lanka became bankrupt in 2022 mainly due to the country’s dollar scarcity. Sri Lankan migrants around the world were willing to transfer foreign money to help the situation, demonstrating strong transnational financial abilities. However, during the subsequent people’s uprising, when Sri Lankans in the country demanded the government’s resignation, many Sri Lankan migrants overseas offered their compatriots support, by refusing to send money unless the government listened to the people’s demands. These transnational acts along with many others tell us that Sri Lankan migrants possess strong transnational identities, although we do not have a wide body of knowledge to understand them yet. This chapter intends to fill this gap by exclusively looking at the case of the transnational identities of the Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings are based on observations and 49 semi-structured interviews with a variety of Sri Lankan migrants in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and Wellington in 2019 and a round of follow-up interviews in 2022 and 2023. The chapter presents three key themes of the participants’ transnational identities: becoming a transnational citizen, transnational politics, and transnational social lives. The chapter details the home and host country factors shaping those views and their complexities. Looking at Sinhalese and Tamil migrants comparatively, the chapter reminds us of the importance of contextual understandings of smaller migrant communities to not only make sense of them but also influence effective migrant policy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Iqbal Athas, Chris Liakos, Rhea Mogul, and Daniela Gonzalez-Roman, “Sri Lanka is ‘Bankrupt,’ Prime Minister says,” CNN, 6 July 2022. Available: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/05/asia/sri-lanka-bankrupt-fuel-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html.

  2. 2.

    “Bankrupt Sri Lanka Asks Citizens Abroad to Send Home Cash,” France 24, 2022. Available: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220413-bankrupt-sri-lanka-asks-citizens-abroad-to-send-home-cash.

  3. 3.

    S. L. Sharma, “Perspectives on Indians Abroad,” in The Indian Diaspora: Dynamics of Migration, ed. N. Jayaram (New Delhi: Sage, 2004), 44–65.

  4. 4.

    I refer to “Sri Lankan Tamils” in my chapter instead of “Tamils” so as to differentiate between Tamils in India. However, I refer to Sinhalese instead of Sri Lankan Sinhalese as this ethnic group is not found in large numbers outside of Sri Lanka in the South Asian region.

  5. 5.

    Pavithra Jayawardena, Immigrants’ Citizenship Perceptions: Sri Lankans in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2023).

  6. 6.

    Graeme Hugo and Lakshman Dissanayake, “The Process of Sri Lankan Migration to Australia Focusing on Irregular Migrants Seeking Asylum,” in A Long Way to Go: Irregular Migration Patterns, Processes, Drivers and Decision-Making, eds. Marie McAuliffe and Khalid Koser (Canberra: ANU Press, 2017), 197–226.

  7. 7.

    Dinuk Jayasuriya and Marie McAuliffe, “Placing Recent Sri Lankan Maritime Arrivals in a Broader Migration Context,” Irregular Migration Research Program Occasional Paper Series, 2013.

  8. 8.

    Pavithra Jayawardena, “Sri Lankan Out-Migration: Five Key Waves since Independence,” University of Colombo Review (Series III) 1, 1 (2020): 101–18.

  9. 9.

    Siri Gamage, “Curtains of Culture, Ethnicity and Class: The Changing Composition of the Sri Lankan Community in Australia,” Journal of Intercultural Studies 19, 1 (1998): 37–56; Siri Gamage, “Adaptation Experiences of Sri Lankan Immigrants and Their Children in Australia in the Context of Multiculturalism and Anglo-Conformity,” in Exploring Cultural Perspectives: Integration and Globalization, eds. A. Richardson, M. Wyness, and E. A. Halvorsen (Edmonton: International Cultural Research Network Press, 2002), 3–29; Sisira Kumara Pinnawala, “Sri Lankans in Melbourne: Factors Influencing Patterns of Ethnicity,” PhD Thesis, Canberra, Australian National University, 1984.

  10. 10.

    Gamage, “Curtains of Culture, Ethnicity and Class”; Sarah Wayland, “Ethnonationalist Networks and Transnational Opportunities: The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora,” Review of International Studies 30, 3 (2004): 405–26.

  11. 11.

    Jayawardena, “Sri Lankan Out-Migration.”

  12. 12.

    Prema-chandra Athukorala and Sisira Jayasuriya, “Trade Policy Reforms and Industrial Adjustment in Sri Lanka,” The World Economy 10, 2 (2000): 387–404.

  13. 13.

    Malsiri Dias and Ramani Jayasundere, “Sri Lanka: The Anxieties and Opportunities of out-Migration,” in Migrant Workers and Human Rights: Out-Migration from South Asia, ed. Pong-Sul Ahn (International Labour Organization, 2004), 153–92; Gamage, “Curtains of Culture, Ethnicity and Class”; K. Ratnayake, “Female Migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East: Is Remedy Worse than the Disease?,” Sri Lanka Journal of Population Studies 2 (1999): 43–56; Swarna Ukwatta, “Sri Lanka, Migration 1960s to Present,” in The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, ed. Swarna Ukwatta (Wiley, 2013).

  14. 14.

    R. Henayaka-Lochbihler and M. Lambusta, The Sri Lankan Diaspora in Italy: An Explorative Mapping (Berlin: Berghof Foundation, 2004).

  15. 15.

    Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, “The Migration-Development Nexus: Sri Lanka Case Study,” International Migration 40, 5 (2002): 283–307.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts, “Australian Multiculturalism: Its Rise and Demise,” in Australasian Political Studies Association Conference Proceedings (Hobart: University of Tasmania, 2003); Elsa Koleth, Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas (Canberra: Department of Parliamentary Services, 2010); Will Kymlicka, “Immigration, Citizenship, Multiculturalism: Exploring the Links,” The Political Quarterly 74 (2003): 195–208; Mervin Singham, “Multiculturalism in New Zealand – the Need for a New Paradigm,” Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal 1, 1 (2006): 33–37; Jerzy Zubrzycki, “The Evolution of the Policy of Multiculturalism in Australia 1968–1995,” in Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings (1995).

  19. 19.

    Chesmal Siriwardhana and Kolitha Wickramage, “Conflict, Forced Displacement and Health in Sri Lanka: A Review of the Research Landscape,” Conflict and Health 8, 22 (2014): 1–9; Sriskandarajah, “The Migration-Development Nexus.”

  20. 20.

    Lavanya Sankaran, “‘Homeland’ & ‘Hostland’ Identifications in the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora,” Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies, 2019; Wayland, “Ethnonationalist Networks and Transnational Opportunities.”

  21. 21.

    Sriskandarajah, “The Migration-Development Nexus.”

  22. 22.

    Jennifer Pagonis, “Coming Home: Sri Lankan Refugee Return,” 2010. Available: http://www.unhcr.org/4c657ec69.html.

  23. 23.

    Sriskandarajah, “The Migration-Development Nexus.”

  24. 24.

    A. Pingama, “Reasons for Youth Migration in Sri Lanka with Emphasis on Regular and Irregular Youth Migrants,” 2nd International Conference on the Humanities (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016).

  25. 25.

    Hugo and Dissanayake, “The Process of Sri Lankan Migration to Australia Focusing on Irregular Migrants Seeking Asylum.”

  26. 26.

    Emily Howie, “Sri Lankan Boat Migration to Australia: Motivations and Dilemmas,” Economic and Political Weekly 48, 35 (2013): 97–104; Hugo and Dissanayake, “The Process of Sri Lankan Migration to Australia Focusing on Irregular Migrants Seeking Asylum.”

  27. 27.

    Janaka Wijayasiri, “Helping Sri Lankan Workers in South Korea to Save Better,” Daily Mirror, 26 November 2019. Available: http://www.dailymirror.lk/features/Helping-Sri-Lankan-workers-in-South-Korea-to-save-better/185-178488.

  28. 28.

    Hugo and Dissanayake, “The Process of Sri Lankan Migration to Australia Focusing on Irregular Migrants Seeking Asylum.”

  29. 29.

    Australian Bureau of Statistics, “2016 Census Quickstats Country of Birth,” Census 2016. Available: https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/7107_036.

  30. 30.

    Victoria State Government, “Sri Lanka-Born: Victorian Community Profiles: 2016 Census,” 2018. Available: https://multicultural.vic.gov.au/images/2016_Census/CommunityProfiles2016/Sri-Lanka-Community-Profile-2016-Census.pdf

  31. 31.

    W. S. Weerasooria, Links between Sri Lanka and Australia: A Book about Sri Lankans (Ceylonese) in Australia (Colombo: Government Printer, 1988).

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Jayawardena, “Sri Lankan Out-Migration”; Nirukshi Perera, “The Maintenance of Sri Lankan Languages in Australia – Comparing the Experience of the Sinhalese and Tamils in the Homeland,” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36, 3 (2015): 297–312.

  34. 34.

    Peter Reeves and Rajesh Rai, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2013).

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade, “Consulate Services for New Zealanders,” 2019. Available: https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/united-nations/new-zealand-permanent-mission-geneva/consulate-services-for-new-zealanders/.

  37. 37.

    Statistics New Zealand, “2013 Census Quickstats about Culture and Identity,” 2013 Census, 2013. Available: http://archive.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-culture-identity/birthplace.aspx?url=/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-culture-identity/birthplace.aspx.

  38. 38.

    R. Cheran, Diaspora Circulation and Transnationalism as Agents for Change in the Post-Conflict Zones of Sri Lanka (Berlin: Berghof Foundation, 2004).

  39. 39.

    Giuseppe Burgio, “When Interculturality Faces a Diaspora. The Transnational Tamil Identity,” Encyclopaideia 44 (2016): 106–28.

  40. 40.

    Camilla Orjuela, “Distant Warriors, Distant Peace Workers?: Multiple Diaspora Roles in Sri Lanka’s Violent Conflict,” Global Networks 8, 4 (2008): 436–52.

  41. 41.

    Wayland, “Ethnonationalist Networks and Transnational Opportunities.”

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 418.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 424.

  44. 44.

    Morton Beiser, Alasdair M. Goodwill, Patrizia Albanese, and Kelly Mcshane, “Predictors of the Integration of Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in Canada: Pre-Migration Adversity, Mental Health, Personal Attributes and Post-Migration Experience,” International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care 11, 1 (2015): 29–44.

  45. 45.

    William Affleck, Umaharan Thamotharampillai, Judy Jeyakumar, and Rob Whitley, “‘If One Does Not Fulfil His Duties, He Must Not Be a Man’: Masculinity, Mental Health and Resilience Amongst Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Men in Canada,” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 42, 4 (2018): 840–61.

  46. 46.

    Nirukshi Perera, A Sense of Viidu: The (Re)creation of Home by the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Australia (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

  47. 47.

    Diotima Chattoraj, Displacement Among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants: The Diasporic Search for Home in the Aftermath of War (Cham: Springer, 2021).

  48. 48.

    Weerasooria, Links between Sri Lanka and Australia.

  49. 49.

    Gamage, “Curtains of Culture, Ethnicity and Class”; Gamage, “Adaptation Experiences of Sri Lankan Immigrants and Their Children in Australia in the Context of Multiculturalism and Anglo-Conformity.”

  50. 50.

    Menusha De Silva, “The Care Pentagon: Older Adults within Sri Lankan - Australian Transnational Families and Their Landscapes of Care,” Population, Space and Place 23, 8 (2017): e2061.

  51. 51.

    Henayaka-Lochbihler and Lambusta, The Sri Lankan Diaspora in Italy.

  52. 52.

    Shemana Cassim, “Oceans Away: Sri Lankan Migrants in New Zealand,” PhD Thesis, Hamilton, University of Waikato, 2017.

  53. 53.

    Jagath Pathirage, “Liberalizing the Boundaries: Reconfiguration of Religious Beliefs and Practice amongst Sri Lankan Immigrants in Australia,” in Asian Migrants and Religious Experience from Missionary Journey to Labour Mobility, eds. B. E Brown and Yeoh Brenda (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), 101–26.

  54. 54.

    I use the term “native citizens” to refer to those who have become citizens by virtue of their birth, whose families have lived in a particular society for generations and/or who claim that they are the “owners” of a country—acknowledging the prejudices of the term. Jayawardena, Immigrants’ Citizenship Perceptions.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Jayawardena, “Sri Lankan Out-Migration.”

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Eva Østergaard-Nielsen, “The Politics of Migrants’ Transnational Political Practices,” International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003): 760–786.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Pavithra Jayawardena

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Correspondence to Pavithra Jayawardena .

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  1. Department of History, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Jatinder Mann

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I am extremely thankful to the editor of this collection, Jatinder Mann, for his detailed feedback and helpful suggestions on my chapter.

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Jayawardena, P. (2023). The Transnational Identities of Sri Lankan Migrants in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. In: Mann, J. (eds) Citizenship in Transnational Perspective. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34358-2_3

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