Sri Lankan Tamil People Join the Western World

Tamil people are a South Asian ethnic group and they have been residing in the similar geographical (present day Sri Lanka) area since the thirteenth century. The language Tamil itself is the oldest language in the world, which dates back 500o years. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, Sri Lanka was colonized by many: The Portuguese, Dutch, and British. Although the colonization brought hardships to the Sri Lankan communities, they also incorporated some foreign traditions into their own. For being a third world country, Sri Lanka quickly became a popular and well-known little country. Furthermore, there is a lot of misconception around the relationship between the Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils, since the countries were very close in proximity. However, Sri Lankan Tamils, who are predominantly Hindu, shared most of their traditions, customs, and religious practices with Buddhist Sinhalese.

The War

Protests happened all over the word by Sri Lankan Tamil people.

Although the Tamils and the Sinhalese had a mutual relationship in history, it was not the case approaching the mid-nineteenth century. Tamil people were given less and less rights and ownership in their own country. Sinhalese became Sri Lanka’s official language and Tamil the secondary language. This caused many Tamil people to lose their jobs and their hard earned livelihoods. This also made it impossible for a Tamil citizen to run for prime minister. The Sinhalese government and the Tamil community had their many differences at this point. These issues and more lead to the 30 year long civil war, which recently ended in 2009. A group of Tamil military joined forces in order to take on the Sinhalese government and gain some independence for the Tamil population. This group, called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was lead by Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

To Sri Lankan’s the LTTE were seen as heroes because they were fighting for the Tamils’ rights and freedom, but to the outside world, they were seen as the complete opposite – terrorists. The LTTE were not behaving honourably when it came to funding. They threatened and guilt tripped Tamil people living in Canada, the United States, and Australia. They would unethically collect money in the form of donations. However, the Tamils living in Sri Lanka did not pay attention to this, as they were doing what they can to stay alive. Outside of Sri Lanka however, the word spread.

The Escape

More than 100,000 innocent Tamil citizens were killed because of the intense war between the government and the LTTE. From the elderly to new born babies, everyone was living in fear. To seek refuge from the genocide, Tamil citizen traveled on underdeveloped boats to countries like Australia and Canada. These boats were very poorly constructed, it wasn’t even built for fishing, but they managed to squeeze about 500 men, women, and children to seek safety. Unfortunately, the boat that landed in Australia was sent back. Canada had a tough decision to make. They contemplated on accepting the refugees or turning them away.

The Intersectional Analysis

It was a popular vote among Canadians to turn them away, however, after the backlash Canada received for turning away the Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi Germany. Many of them died in concentration camps after their return.

Canadians had made a decision that these struggling boat people were terrorists. There were many theories that were lingering around. Some believed that the LTTE sent the boat full of people to get more money out of people, and some believed from the get go that they were criminals and terrorists. These assumptions were made from the statements that the Sri Lankan government put out. Westerners, unaware of how corrupt a government could be, automatically believed that coloured poor people must be up to no good. Fleeing from a world of bombs and military barricades, they were just human beings seeking safety so their kids could have a better life. However, many Westerners did not see it that way. They witnessed a bunch of coloured people on an old rickety boat, and that was all it took to label them as terrorists, sketchy, or criminals. Furthermore, there were two ways a family was able to escape, they could either confirm their refuge and then receive all their documents before flying to the country, which could take months, or they could go directly to the country and then claim refuge. The latter is the faster way for these people facing trauma, and so they set sail on whatever boat that can occupy the most people.

It is apparent that the Sri Lankan government had much to do with the perception and stereotype that the Westerners had placed on the fleeing Tamils. However, it is the duty of the people to not fall accustomed to word of mouth and associate it with ones colour of their skin or status.

Fortunately, after much discussion, the Tamils were allowed into Canada and have made homes of their own.