Pardee-CFLP-Remittances-TF-Report

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Section II: Remittances in Post-ConflictDevelopment: Country Studies3. Migration, Remittances, Development,and the Civil Conflict in Sri LankaSuranjana Nabar-BhaduriThis section looks at the role of remittances in Sri Lanka in the context of thecivil war between Sri Lankan government forces and secessionist Tamil militantsthat lasted from 1983 to 2009. It examines the composition of migration (laborversus refugee) from Sri Lanka, the effects of the conflict on the pathways ofmigration and remittances, the channels used to remit money, and the use ofremittances at the macro and micro levels. The section also discusses challengesthat appear to be impeding remittances from addressing the broader issues ofpost-conflict development in Sri Lanka, and suggests policies that could helpaddress these challenges. It uses the Sri Lankan case to point towards policiesthat could better enable remittances to address the development and reconstructionneeds of post-conflict countries, and facilitate a more sustainable andinclusive path of long-run development.The Sinhalese-speaking population has historically been Sri Lanka’s largestethnic group, and constituted 74.9 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of about20.2 million in 2012. The Sri Lankan Tamils have been the second major ethnicgroup, constituting 11.2 percent of the population in 2012 (2012 Sri LankaCensus of Population and Housing). During the British colonial rule, the disproportionaterepresentation given to the minority Tamils in higher education andadministration politicized ethnic identity in Sri Lanka. In the years followingindependence in 1948, Sri Lankan government policies on language, universityadmission rules, and access to public service employment came to favor thedominant Sinhalese population. Additionally, the government introduced settlerprograms for Sinhalese farmers in Tamil areas. These policies created a senseof alienation among Sri Lanka’s minority ethnic groups. The rivalry betweenthe Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils became increasingly confrontational overtime, and gave rise to the Tamil nationalist struggle. The attack by the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that killed 15 Sinhalese soldiers on July 23,1983 resulted in an anti-Tamil pogrom, and marked the beginning of Sri Lanka’sdescent into a civil war between the Sri Lankan government and secessionistTamil militants that lasted for 25 years.Remittance Flows to Post-Conflict States: Perspectives on Human Security and Development 59
Post-independence Migration from Sri Lanka:Composition and the Effects of the Civil WarBetween 1948 and the early 1970s, Sri Lankan migrants primarily consistedof the Sinhalese and Tamil English-speaking educated and professional elite,who migrated mainly to the United Kingdom, and in smaller numbers to otherCommonwealth countries in the West for higher education and employment.The 1970s witnessed a second wave of migration to the UK by young Tamil men,who found their education opportunities limited when the Sri Lankan governmentintroduced quotas in the early 1970s to restrict Tamil admissions in SriLankan colleges and universities (Sriskandarajah 2002; Lindley and Van Hear2007; and Orjuela 2008).The late 1970s marked the beginning of a third wave of migration flows ofmainly Sinhalese semi-skilled and unskilled labor to the Middle East in responseto the rising demand for construction and other unskilled labor in the petroleumproducingcountries. These flows were facilitated by the migration promotionpolicies of the Sri Lankan government from 1977 that saw labor migration asa means for absorbing surplus labor and easing foreign exchange shortages.Large-scale migration by Sri Lankan female domestic workers became anotherdefining aspect of labor migration flows to the Middle East. The scale of thesemigration flows have caused the Middle East to emerge as the major destinationof Sri Lankan labor migrants, and the main source of remittances to SriLanka. In 2010, 93 percent of labor migrants from Sri Lanka were employed inthe Middle Eastern countries [Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE)Annual Report 2010]. Housemaids constituted 42.44 percent of total departuresfor foreign employment from Sri Lanka, and 86 percent of total female migrantworkers from Sri Lanka. Thus, labor migrant flows from Sri Lanka have beendominated by unskilled labor, with housemaids and other unskilled laborconstituting nearly 65 percent of labor migration flows in 2010 (SLBFE AnnualReport 2010). Despite some marginal increments in the migration of skilledlabor to Europe and the United States in more recent years, the skills profile oflabor migrants from Sri Lanka remains predominantly unskilled (Arunatilakeet al. 2010).Finally, a fourth wave of migration occurred since the 1980s, especially followingthe onset of the civil war between secessionist Tamil militants and governmentforces in 1983. The majority of this migration consisted of refugee flows, mainlypoor Tamils directly affected by the conflict from the rural areas of northeast60 A Pardee Center Task Force Report | October 2013
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Pardee Center TASK FORCE Report oct
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This series of papers, Pardee Cente
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AcknowledgementsThis Task Force on
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ITU International Telecommunication
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networks and migrant associations i
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to developing countries than other
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But most importantly, remittances a
Page 15 and 16: often mix in the countries of desti
Page 17 and 18: According to the World Bank estimat
Page 19 and 20: Because of its focus on the multidi
Page 21 and 22: eceiving remittances provides an en
Page 23 and 24: associations for post-conflict inst
Page 25 and 26: are proposed to avoid the associate
Page 27 and 28: Terry, D. 2005. Remittances as a De
Page 29 and 30: oader approach to post-conflict rem
Page 31 and 32: networks can be seen as “homogeno
Page 33 and 34: That personalized nature of hawala
Page 35 and 36: Customary law (xeer) and other trad
Page 37 and 38: the world (Lindley 2009, 531). Much
Page 40 and 41: ize the informal equal efforts to a
Page 42 and 43: struction and development. Means sh
Page 44 and 45: opportunities should focus on exist
Page 46 and 47: 2. Dodd-Frank Act and Remittances t
Page 48 and 49: leadership. Formal payments systems
Page 50 and 51: and financial institutions. 26 Reso
Page 52 and 53: closures should be both in English
Page 54 and 55: issued a new proposed regulation De
Page 56 and 57: “closed network,” in which all
Page 58 and 59: Some guidance may be found in the p
Page 60 and 61: the use of mobile devices for money
Page 62 and 63: Foreign TaxesUnder the 2012 regulat
Page 64 and 65: will be available in all cases. CFP
Page 68 and 69: Sri Lanka. The conflict also result
Page 70 and 71: Figure 2: Current Account, Trade Ba
Page 72 and 73: flows came from migrant workers in
Page 74 and 75: Informal Remittance Channels in Sri
Page 76 and 77: tory authorities, with some calls f
Page 78 and 79: 4. The Role of Remittances in Post-
Page 80 and 81: Figure 1: Liberia Per Capita Income
Page 82 and 83: associations, women’s groups, alu
Page 84 and 85: Remittances to LiberiaValue of Remi
Page 86 and 87: credit because of the need to be li
Page 88 and 89: Remittance Transfers in Sierra Leon
Page 90 and 91: Knowledge RemittanceThe Liberian di
Page 92 and 93: process furthermore was a pioneerin
Page 94 and 95: Levitt, Peggy and Deepak Lamba-Niev
Page 96 and 97: Section III: Diaspora Networks andC
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Page 100 and 101: One of the main challenges for mobi
Page 102 and 103: 6. Transnational Remittances and De
Page 104 and 105: The Salvadoran Diaspora is very sig
Page 106 and 107: annually during the 1990s to less t
Page 108 and 109: Figure 2: Transnational Vicious Cyc
Page 110 and 111: The transnational vicious cycle not
Page 112 and 113: emittance flows is mixed, as initia
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areas. This issue can potentially b
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This is a breakthrough moment: afte
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Edwards, Sebastian and I. Igal Mage
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y La Distribucion Del Ingreso, 1st
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7. Remittances and Community Resili
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For quantitative data collection, a
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Remittances are perceived as playin
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the affected population. Internatio
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ReferencesAddleton, J. 1984. The im
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8. Filling the Gap in Health Staffi
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The alternative is for donors to se
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cians in the U.S. in 2000 (Clemens
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1. Remittances, Financial Inclusion
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networks, and communities. The role
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• In the present era of heightene
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the island of Kosrae, in the Federa
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and Sweden and has held visiting pr
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he organized a number of workshops
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