Vertical living: transnational urbanisation and diasporic returns to Wellawatte/Colombo, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

The end of the violent conflict in 2009 and subsequent political changes in Sri Lanka post-2015 has opened a window for the return of the Tamil diaspora. The journey that began with the exodus of the Tamils from the North to Colombo, particularly Wellawatte, continued for those who fled the Island while others opted to stay back. The returning Tamil diaspora find Wellawatte as a place of arrival, transition and resettlement. This article looks at how the returning Tamil diaspora become embedded in Wellawatte by investing in condominium units and thereby becoming involved in transforming neighbourhoods. Empirical data from 32 qualitative interviews provide insight into social challenges and transitions that are part of the return migration process, and how a neighbourhood becomes a place of contested co-living as a result of different expectations, visions and aspirations.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational urbanism
• diasporic return
• migration
• Tamil diaspora
• Sri Lanka

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Tanuja Thurairajah is reading for her PhD at the Human Geography Unit, Department of Geography of the University of Zurich. She has a MA in Peace & Conflict Studies from the University of Innsbruck. Tanuja’s current research looks at Swiss Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora engagement and agency. Her research interests include diasporas, migration and conflict. Tanuja has over a decade of experience working in the development and humanitarian sector in Sri Lanka.

Pia Hollenbach has a PhD from the Political Geography Department of the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on governmentality of aid, humanitarianism, post-disaster reconstruction in urban settings. In addition, she expanded her research interests starting to work on diaspora, migration, transnationalism and patterns of diaspora engagement in post-war societies with the Department of Geography, University of Zurich. Her regional focus is South Asia with Sri Lanka, Nepal and South India as research localities.

Rina Alluri is Senior Researcher at the Human Geography Unit, Department of Geography of the University of Zurich and an independent peace building consultant. Her research looks at the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Switzerland and its forms of engagement. As a peace building practitioner and researcher, she is interested in topics such as business and peace, conflict sensitivity and natural resource conflicts. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Basel and an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague.

ORCID

Tanuja Thurairajah http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7957-0054

Pia Hollenbach http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1285-9272

Rina Alluri http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4301-7975

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. 1921 Colombo Garden City Plan (Patrick Geddes); 1948 Suburban Satellite Towns (Patrick Abercrombie); 1978 Colombo Masterplan (UNDP); 1985 City of Colombo Development Plan (UDA); 1996 Colombo Metropolitan Regional Structure Plan (UDA); 2010 Mahinda Chintana (Department of National Planning).

2. Figure denotes Tamil population including Tamils of Indian origin living within the Colombo city limits. Overall population of Colombo district including all ethnic groups amounts to 2,324,349 with overall Tamil population amounting to 259, 379.

3. Names have been anonymised to protect the privacy of the respondents.

4. Vastu shastra is a traditional Hindu system of architecture, which can be translated as ‘science of architecture’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant number [10001A_172725/1].