Internal Migration in Sri Lanka and Its Social Consequences

The South Asian nation of Sri Lanka has experienced a tremendous amount of internal migration in recent decades. More than two million persons, nearly one out of seven, were born in districts other than their place of enumeration for the 1981 census. The authors of this book probe the aspects of internal migration in Sri Lanka and some of the lesser-known social and political consequences of these population shifts. Three major aspects of societal upheavals related to internal migration are examined: unbalanced sex ratios, rising rates of suicide, and increased ethnic conflict. The linkages between these provide a new and provocative approach to understanding some of the unanticipated effects of social change. Sri Lanka provides an instructive case study of the rapid transition from a settled agrarian society to a more complex and differentiated one and of the demographic and political sequelae that accompany such a change.