Mobilities and home: the notion of becoming insiders among the Sri Lankan Northern Tamil IDPs in Colombo

This article considers the varied complexities of forced migration, belonging, virtual and imagined mobilities, and ideas of home. Addressing the idea of home among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Sri Lanka, this article will seek to explain how they locate home and their approaches towards returning. Doing so will elucidate the extent of IDP’s feelings of ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ status at their places of displacement. The collected data will be analyzed through theoretical frameworks that consider differing notions of home, mobility and sense of belonging. Drawing on the life experiences of the Tamil IDPs in the capital city of Colombo in Sri Lanka, I will argue that home has become mobile for many of the respondents. Through assimilation, many IDPs have successfully adapted to their new locales, viewing it more suitable than their places of origin. The collective research is qualitative in nature, analyzed through the use of primary and secondary data collected in Colombo in three phases, from January to March 2013, November to December 2019 and September to December 2021. Findings suggest that displacement has facilitated the process of recreating experiences of home in Colombo. I argue that IDPs are able to carry their homes along with them in ways that transcend the limitations of time or space. However, they are still on the journey of ‘becoming insiders’, not yet ‘being insiders’.