Abstract
This paper focuses on the experiences, challenges and aspirations of three middle-aged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo who are reluctant to return to their places of origin in the northern provinces of Sri Lanka due to several personal and professional reasons. The paper aims to analyze the diverse experiences they faced due to displacement. It also uncovers strategies used to cope in a new city and portrays the differences they experience between the places they came from and the city they now live in. The empirical point of departure has been drawn from the stories of three middle-aged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo. The paper argues that they have adapted to their place of displacement and view the city as a more suitable place to live compared to their places of origin. In addition, they also identify displacement as a blessing in disguise as they believe integrating in Colombo helped them to aspire to a better future which would have never been possible in their places of origin. Thus, this paper provides a picture of how they have reconstructed their lives in Colombo and how this has led them to reconsider and renegotiate their relationship to their 'homes'.
Highlights
This paper focuses on the experiences, challenges and aspirations of three middle-aged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo who are reluctant to return to their places of origin in the northern provinces of Sri Lanka due to several personal and professional reasons
A substantial number of Tamils migrated to the capital city of Colombo to escape the miseries of the ongoing war and many viewed the city as an easy transit out of the country
This paper focuses on the experiences, challenges and aspirations of the middleaged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo who are reluctant to return to their places of origin in the Northern provinces due to several personal and professional reasons
Summary
The notion of belonging is both a processual and relational perspective (see Chattoraj & Gerharz, forthcoming). Apart from performances of commonality, it highlights the ways in which people relate to each other in terms of ‘mutuality’ as well as their material and immaterial attachments. The notion of belonging enables differentiation between the ways in which people themselves construct belonging to collectives, and to places (such as cities), and the. The three dimensions that Pfaff-Czarnecka (2013) identifies as ways in which people construct their belonging are useful to this analysis. 17) making them belong to spaces and sites, to natural objects, landscapes, climate, and to material possessions (Appadurai, 1986; hooks, 2009) These kinds of attachments are produced through embodiment, for instance, the resonances of smells and tastes, as well as citizenship and property rights In order to better locate these IDPs in Colombo, I will summarize the historical context of displacement and trace the major developments which have taken place in Sri Lanka more recently
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