Superdiverse Diaspora

Drawing on in-depth qualitative research, this book provides a nuanced picture of the everyday identifications experienced and expressed among the superdiverse Tamil migrant population in Britain. It presents the first detailed analysis of the narrative and experiences of Tamils from a diversity of backgrounds ΓÇô including Sri Lankan, Indian, Singaporean and Malaysian - and to address the question of their identification with a ΓÇÿTamil diasporaΓÇÖ in Britain.

Theoretically informed by BrubakerΓÇÖs conception of ΓÇÿdiaspora as processΓÇÖ and WerbnerΓÇÖs notion of diasporas as both ΓÇÿaestheticΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿmoralΓÇÖ communities, Jones examines political engagements alongside other, less studied, ΓÇÿframesΓÇÖ of Tamil migrantsΓÇÖ lives: social relationships (local and transnational), the domestic space of home, and performances of faith and ritual. Considering diaspora as a process or practice allows the author to reveal a complex landscape upon which ΓÇÿbeing TamilΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿdoing Tamil-nessΓÇÖ in diaspora are diversely enacted.

Combining original ethnographic research with a theoretical engagement in the key debates in migration, diaspora, ethnicity and superdiversity studies, this book makes a novel contribution to scholarship on Tamil populations and will advance critical understandings of the concept of ΓÇÿdiasporaΓÇÖ more generally.