Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Abstract

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a ‘Tamil diaspora’, they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as ‘aesthetic’ and ‘moral’ communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, ‘membership’ of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly – based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil ‘victimhood’ that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences.

Keywords:

• Tamils
• migration
• diaspora
• long-distance nationalism
• ethnicity
• transnational politics

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the research participants for sharing their views and experiences, and to Dr Jon Fox, Dr Katharine Charsley and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Funding

This research took place as part of a doctoral project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number: ES/GO16666/1].

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This research took place as part of a doctoral project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number: ES/GO16666/1].

Notes on contributors

Demelza Jones

DEMELZA JONES is Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University.