The Role Of Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora In Homeland Affairs
The Role Of Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora In Homeland Affairs

Author(s): Tulika Gaur
Subject(s): Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Sri Lankan; Tamil Diaspora; homeland affairs;
Summary/Abstract: The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora has increasingly become an important factor in national as well as international politics for a variety of reasons. Their activism has successfully established new power relations between Sri Lanka and the international community, particularly since the end of LTTE in the island. From continuously providing financial support to their families and people in their homeland to articulating their kin groups’ demands, the diaspora community has been a significant factor in shaping the narratives of Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka. Being the most effective lobbying group, it has eventually succeeded in making the Tamil issue an international issue rather than a domestic one. Not only have they managed to bring the situations of the war zone in front of the international community, but also successfully exposed the status of Sri Lankan government’s attempts towards resolving the Tamil issue in the post-war era. Their activism has been a key factor in shaping the international community’s stand over the issue of Sri Lankan war and making their homeland government answerable to the entire international community for the injustice done to their kin groups. This indicates that the issue of justice for Tamils and policy making in the island will remain ineffective if the diaspora community is not made a part of it as the representative voice of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

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