Beyond divisive nationalisms in Sri Lanka: Some new perspectives on identity and democracy in the "hybrid island "

At 8 a.m. on a relatively crisp morning in April 2008 many thousands of young men had formed an enormous queue outside the Bureau for Foreign Employment in Colombo for when the doors would be opened an hour later. Near the head of the queue the faces were anxious because the weight of bodies was beginning to push on them; further back the atmosphere was more relaxed, even jovial, and still hopeful young men, clutching essential documents in see-through folders, were joining the back of the queue well over a kilometre from where it began. Word had got around that South Korea and Japan would issue a total of 3000 work visas on this day for fit young men. The successful applicants would join an expatriate Sri Lankan workforce of more than 1.5 million, around 20% of the overall Sri Lankan workforce.2 For a long time women made up the majority of such "cyclical migrants", often leaving their children at home to work as "domestics" in countries ranging from Kuwait to Italy. Now there are growing opportunities for young men and remittances from workers abroad has become one of Sri Lanka's leading industries. Sri Lanka has overtaken Bangladesh to have the highest percentage of GDP