FromGuru GamatoPunchi Italia: changing dreams of Sri Lankan transnational youth

Brown, Bernardo E.

doi:10.1080/09584935.2014.963514

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This echoes Michel Foucault’s own words when he asks, ‘what is ethics if not the practice of freedom, the conscious [ réfléchie ] practice of freedom?’ (Foucault and Rabinow, 1997: 284). Global regimes of production, the dynamics of neo-liberalism and the dubious hyper-connectivity predicted by transnationalism inform the social imaginaries of migrants workers and of those who dream of leaving (Brown, 2014); however, a space remains in which people take a step back and evaluate, more or less judiciously, the implications of their actions in the context of their own moral maps. More often than not the options available are desperately bleak and one might cringe at the idea of speaking of the agency of migrant workers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Official statistics published by the Italian Interior Ministry show that 88,000 Sri Lankan nationals were legally residing in the country in 2011. It was easy for most of these migrants working as cleaners and cooks to surpass salaries of €1000 a month (Collyer and Pathirage, 2011; Brown, 2014), enabling savings of at least €300 every month. Some of my informants with several years of experience in Italy were putting aside more than €5000 a year.…”

Section: A Special Case In Sri Lankan Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Routines of morality: Nurturing familiar values in unfamiliar lands

Brown

2015

Ethnography

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Although many long-term Sri Lankan migrants to Italy have words of praise for Italian culture and find few reasons to permanently return to their hometowns, they often take the decision to bring children back to Sri Lanka for their education. The reason most cited to opt for Sri Lankan schooling is that ‘Italians don’t have good values’. Certain Sri Lankan normative practices that adults can circumvent while in Italy play a fundamental heuristic role in the education of children and are allegedly only present in Sri Lanka. However, values are also a fundamental aspect of arguments put forward by migrants to stay in Italy as workers. This article discusses the ambiguities that concepts such as values and culture have in the daily usage of migrant workers. To clarify how they are used in arguments for and against migration, I suggest that scholarship in the anthropology of ethics can be illuminating in the ethnographic context of the Sri Lankan transnational experience. I discuss how migrant parents critically approach their understanding of Sri Lankan and Italian cultures, and how they ponder over alternative courses of action that tread between the material objectives of migration and the ethical values of Sri Lankan Catholicism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Special Case In Sri Lankan Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routines of morality: Nurturing familiar values in unfamiliar lands

Brown

2015

Ethnography

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“…5 5 On Europe, this literature includes Erdal (2006), Hess and Korf (2014), Orjuela (2008) and McDowell (1996). An exception concerns the Sinhalese community in Italy, see Brown (2011, 2014, 2016), Nare (2010), Pathirage and Collyer (2011) and Henayaka-Lochbihler and Lambusta (2004). On Canada, see Cheran (2007) and Hyndman (2003) amongst others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philanthropy, Remittances and Identity: The Case of London-based Sri Lankans

Kabir

Stirrat

2017

Society and Culture in South Asia

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Although expatriate remittances are a major topic of study in the world of development, relatively little research has taken place on the motives and meanings of international remittances. This article examines Sri Lankan expatriates in the United Kingdom. It focuses on charitable and philanthropic activities and argues that these can only be understood within the context of the personal histories of the donors.

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“…1) the level of integration with the host society (Ager & Strang, 2008;Arvizu & Garcia, 1996;Avcı, 2006;Bennour, 2020;Bloemraad, 2006a, 20 06b;Ersanilli & Koopmans, 2010;Paquet, 2012;Scipioni, 2017;Zhou & Liu, 2016); and 2) transnational relations with the home country (Arkilic, 2016;Basch et al, 1994;Bauböck, 1994;Bloemraad, 2004;Brown, 2014;Brun & Van Hear, 2012;Cassim, 2017;Conway et al, 2008;Jones, 2016;Leitner & Ehrkamp, 2006;Levitt & Schiller, 2004;Merelo, 2016;Mügge, 2012;Orjuela, 2008;Simonsen, 2016Simonsen, , 2017Tölölyan, 1996;Wayland, 2004).…”

Section: The Socio-economic Determinants Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where to Belong and Why? Sri Lankan immigrants’ perceptions of Australian, New Zealand and Sri Lankan citizenship

Pathirannehelage¹

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Migration from developing to developed countries has led to the naturalisation of millions of immigrants in their new destinations. Meanwhile, the trend of relaxing dual citizenship policies by many states has offered immigrants the option of retaining their home country citizenship as well as obtaining citizenship in their new country. Thus, legally, immigrants whose home and adoptive country both allow dual citizenship, can continue to be citizens in both countries at the same time, although such multiple attachments challenge the traditional meaning of belonging of a citizen: that one citizen can belong to one country only. In this thesis, I analyse the meaning immigrants ascribe to citizenship when they are legal members of two states. In particular, I am interested in understanding the factors that lead emigrants/immigrants to see their home and host country citizenship in terms of the material benefits they provide, and those that lead them to see citizenship as an expression of loyalty and belonging. I do this by exploring the similarities and differences in the way Sri Lankan immigrants give meaning to their adoptive (Australian or New Zealand) citizenship as opposed to their home (Sri Lankan) citizenship. To explore Sri Lankan immigrants’ views, this study employs a qualitative methodology. I collected data through forty-nine semi-structured interviews with first-generation Sri Lankan immigrants in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington, and used thematic analysis to interpret my data. I found that my participants give different meanings to their Sri Lankan, Australian, and New Zealand citizenship. In terms of the adoptive country citizenship, participants’ instrumental and patriotic views were intertwined. My findings show that Sri Lankan immigrants’ loyalty and sense of belonging to Australian or New Zealand society has developed on top of their positive thoughts about achieving socio-economic or political migratory expectations. In contrast, participants viewed the patriotic spirit and the instrumentalist value of home country citizenship separately, and the strength of their feeling about loyalty and belonging was not affected by the material aspects of citizenship. Based on these findings, I highlight the need to understand immigrants’ perceptions of citizenship differently than those of native citizens. I argue that assumptions, such as only good immigrants can belong and be loyal to the host society in isolation to their materialistic interests of citizenship, are highly misleading and result in ineffective policy decisions. The findings also show that home country factors that affect the way my participants see citizenship vary across ethnic lines. While the way Sinhalese participants perceive their Sri Lankan and Australian or New Zealand citizenship are more affected by socio-economic factors, Tamil participants’ views are mostly influenced by political factors, due to the ethnic suppression they faced in Sri Lanka. Thus, I conclude that migration scholarship should acknowledge heterogeneity within immigrant communities and migrants’ unique, individual, experiences, and subjective realities.

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FromGuru GamatoPunchi Italia: changing dreams of Sri Lankan transnational youth

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Routines of morality: Nurturing familiar values in unfamiliar lands

Routines of morality: Nurturing familiar values in unfamiliar lands

Philanthropy, Remittances and Identity: The Case of London-based Sri Lankans

Where to Belong and Why? Sri Lankan immigrants’ perceptions of Australian, New Zealand and Sri Lankan citizenship

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