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The Sinhalese Diaspora: New Directions in Sri Lankan Diasporic Writing

ABSTRACT This article investigates a particular sub-section of South Asian literature in English, namely, contemporary diasporic social realism fiction by Sri Lankan authors. It not only explores the little-discussed Sri Lankan Sinhalese diaspora which is usually overshadowed by the more numerous and better known Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, but it also focuses on middle-/upper middle-class migrants, whose migration, assimilation and resettlement encompass a very particular set of issues, especially with relation to their class and background. Middle-/upper middle-class Sinhalese migrants from Sri Lanka are more commonly economic migrants (as opposed to political migrants, refugees or asylum seekers). Sinhalese migrants carry a considerable amount of social capital, but generally seem unable to translate this into the correct and recognised currency of the host country, leading to certain frustrations and subsequent necessary (and occasionally painful) identity negotiations. Using Sri Lankan writing in English (SLWE), this article investigates the struggles of middle-/upper-class, Sinhalese economic migrants who attempt to negotiate their integration in their new host societies at a lower socio-economic level than that from whence they came.