Envisioning pathways to peace post-war: the views of young Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada and the United Kingdom

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dc.contributor.authorPatrick, Stephaney
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeMorin, Francine (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning)
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeSenehi, Jessica (Peace and Conflict Studies)
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeRudhramoorthy, Cheran (Sociology and Criminology, University of Windsor)
dc.contributor.supervisorByrne, Sean
dc.date.accessioned2025-04-10T16:04:57Z
dc.date.available2025-04-10T16:04:57Z
dc.date.issued2025-03-25
dc.date.submitted2025-03-25T07:41:44Zen_US
dc.date.submitted2025-04-02T20:16:24Zen_US
dc.degree.disciplinePeace and Conflict Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
dc.description.abstractIn post-independence Sri Lanka (1948), ethnic tensions between the GoSL and LTTE escalated into a full-scale 26-year brutal protracted secessionist civil-war. At the epicenter of the war were Tamil youth, who formed the core cadre of the Tamil Tigers or LTTE and were perpetrators and survivors of that war. The mass exodus of Tamils from the island to live in the diaspora played a pivotal role in single-handedly sustaining the war as many funded and supplied the LTTE with arms. It has been over 15-years since the LTTE was defeated by the GoSL ending the war in 2009. The state oppression of Tamils and their marginalization, the Sinhalization of Tamil lands and surveillance as well as pre-existent discriminatory laws that started the war have incensed Tamils globally and continue to escalate the conflict. In recent years, Western host governments have raised fears about a resurgence of Tamil youth radicalization of those living in the diaspora. Yet, these concerns remain largely unsubstantiated, and they tend to portray Tamil youth as societal threats, overlooking their contributions to building peace on the island. Informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory the thesis explores the perceptions and experiences of 16 diaspora Tamil youth living in Canada and the United Kingdom, all of whom are engaged in social change and peacebuilding efforts through civil society organizations to bring about peace in Sri Lanka. Using semi-structured interviews as the main research instrument to generate data, I then made sense of their stories and constructed a model of understanding generated inductively from the data. The key findings highlight how different perspectives have led to intragroup disunity within the Tamil diaspora, ultimately obstructing progress toward building peace on the island. Other key findings indicate that Tamil youth were confused about their identity and were often portrayed by host governments as terrorists while they refused to be political pawns used between the LTTE and the GoSL in a deadly political game. These young people are working for peace within the Tamil diaspora as well as between Tamil and Sinhalese Sri Lankans on the island.
dc.description.noteMay 2025
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/39001
dc.language.isoeng
dc.subjectsocial change
dc.subjectethnic conflict
dc.subjectpeacebuilding
dc.subjectdiaspora
dc.titleEnvisioning pathways to peace post-war: the views of young Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada and the United Kingdom
local.subject.manitobano
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