Sri Lankan Diasporas between Participation and Conflict: Intergroup Dynamics in Italy

Abstract

By analysing participation and conflict in different spatialities and temporalities, this paper explores how Sinhalese and Tamil diasporas in Italy perceive themselves and forge their relationship with the contentious politics in their homeland. It investigates whether the features that characterised conflictual dynamics in Sri Lanka (homeland) have been transported to Italy (host country) and how they have been configured here (reproduction versus autonomisation), and it explores whether new asymmetries of power have arisen in Italy. The aim is to overcome a static approach to diasporas by exploring how identity and forms of participation are shaped, even through conflict. Building on interviews and an extensive analysis of secondary sources, the paper shows that both conflict autonomisation and conflict neutralisation are present in Italy, while new forms and purposes of political mobilisation have emerged, depending on the diasporic generation and the peculiarities of the new context.