This paper explores the relationship between migration and development in Sri Lanka, a country that has been the source of large numbers of migrants and the recipient of much development assistance. Commissioned as part of a wider study conducted by the Centre for Development Research, Denmark, this case study seeks to answer a set of specific questions about the nature and extent of links between development assistance and migration flows. The paper surveys the socio-economic context in which both migration and development have taken place in Sri Lanka, describing the causes, scale, and features of migration flows from Sri Lanka in recent decades. Two main streams of migration flows are identified: labour migration and political migration. The flows are distinguished by ethnic characteristics (the former is mostly Sinhalese and the latter pre-dominantly Tamil) and destination (the former to the Middle East and the latter to the West). Both flows have intensified during a time of protracted conflict and in the context of waraffected economic development since the early 1980s.
In examining the narratives of colorectal cancer patients and their carers, we have noted that approval and disapproval are expressed in many ways that reflect their importance in the process of medical care. When people construct free narratives that trace important segments of their biographies, they emphasize the approval and disapproval which others express for their choices, actions and moral qualities. They also want their own approval or disapproval for others to count in significant ways. Approval is widely recognized for its importance in human development, and it is generally a positive force. The seeking of inappropriate approval, however, may have unfortunate consequences. For health professionals, for example, conflicts may arise when they come to seek peer approval ahead of client approval, and when a career comes to matter more than the real social purposes for which the career is intended. Identification of the conflicts that this divided loyalty may induce helps in understanding some of the underlying issues which narratives raise. It is possible to construct a formal structure that can be used to examine the part which the seeking and receiving of approval play in the values expressed in medical narratives generally. Similar and equally powerful meanings attach to disapproval.
This article examines the relationship between economic development and ethnopolitical conflict in three developing countries: Malaysia, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago. Each of these countries has been relatively successful in achieving rapid economic development and accommodation amongst constituent ethnic groups. The article explores two particular questions that the experience of these three countries raises: does rapid economic development make ethnic accommodation easier and how important is inter-ethnic inequality? It is suggested that economic development alone cannot prevent ethnopolitical conflict. What matter just as much, if not more, are real and perceived inter-ethnic disparities in access to key economic and political resources. Importantly, each of these countries pursued a hegemonic “one nation” strategy in the early decades following independence that involved strategic partnerships between the major constituent ethnic groups and negotiated economic redistribution. As a result, inter-ethnic inequality has been kept in check. However, there are emerging signs of disruptive ethnopolitical mobilization in each country, based in part on ethnic grievances about discrimination in the distribution of resources. The article concludes that, even in these relatively successful and harmonious cases, the management of socio-economic inequality remains important.
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