DIASPORA, TRANSNATIONALISM AND GLABAL ENGAGEMENT

Transnational groups, capable of maintaining and investing in social, economic and political networks that span the globe, are of increasing relevance and interest to scholars, policy makers, development workers and NGOs in “home” countries as well as “host” countries. Research on transnationalism and diaspora is currently conducted from numerous perspectives including anthropology, sociology, human geography, international migration, post colonialism, political economy and communications. The terms “transnational” and “diasporic communities,” today, are increasingly being used as metaphorical definitions for expatriates, expellees, refugees, alien residents, immigrants, displaced communities and ethnic minorities. The term diaspora has historically been used to describe the experience of forced displacement and to analyze the social, cultural and political formations that result from this forced displacement. Transnational communities can be generally defined as communities living or belonging to more than one “national” space.  However, the distinction between diaspora and transnational is not always clear in social science literature. While some scholars have argued in favor of identifying a closed set of attributes and have been only minimally concerned with the actual conditions of diasporic existence (Cohen 1997), others have preferred to use the term in the broader sense of human dispersal (Safran 1991). The broader definitions do not help us to understand the specific social, historical and political contexts within which diasporas emerged and function as transnational communities. In addition, the traditional naming and meaning of diasporas can be expanded to include several communities that express new identities and cultural practices as the result of displacement, hybridity and transnationality and mediated through economic transnationalism in the context of globalization. While recognizing that diasporas can eventually evolve into powerful transnational communities, it is sufficient to say that multiple and simultaneous ways of belonging and incorporation in the “home” and “host” countries is the one key theme that is common for both(Cheran, forthcoming 2005). This is the most important theme that animates the dynamics of transnational communities in the contemporary age.


Current knowledge
Canada and Sri Lanka are two important locations that are conducive for an extensive research on transnational networks and their potential role in policy making, development, peace building and international human rights. We propose to study the Tamil and Sinhala transnational community networks in Canada and their nexus in Sri Lanka.

We prefer to use the term transnational community networks because it allows us to articulate different forms of transnationalism including the diasporic. There has been considerable interest in the research on Tamil diaspora and transnational community networks (Cheran 2001, 2004; Daniel 1995; Fuglerut 1999; McDowell 1999; Sriskandarajah 2004; Wayland 2004). Sri Lankan “labour diasporas” have been the focus of some other studies such as Gamburd (2001). While these studies have enriched our understanding of diasporic communities and the complex ways of their incorporation, interaction and imagination, the nexus between the transnational community networks in the host societies and their role and impact on the home countries have been neglected. The other major limitation of these studies is that they did not pay attention to intra-diasporic and inter-diasporic relations, which are crucial in studying diasporic communities and peace building. There are several other areas that are vital in the study of transnational community networks and their impact on “host” and as well as homelands. The impact cannot be studied in isolation since the “host” and homelands are no longer separable but constitute and function as a single field for transnational community groups (Cheran 2004; Glick-Schiller et.al. 1999). Therefore, any research on transnational communities has to be simultaneously carried out in host and home countries.

This IDRC funded study have the following Objectives;


Research Objectives:

The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka can no longer be viewed as a bi-polar conflict that has hitherto excluded the Muslims. However, there is no active Muslim diaspora in Canada.