By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
There’s a saying among Sri Lankans abroad:
“You can leave the island — but the island never leaves you.”
It’s true.
Whether sipping Ceylon tea in Toronto, watching cricket in Melbourne at 3AM, or teaching your kids how to say “umbalakada” (dried Maldive fish) in London, Sri Lankans abroad carry the island like a tattoo — invisible, permanent, and deeply personal.
Welcome to the diaspora.
A global patchwork of engineers, nurses, bankers, cab drivers, professors, chefs, politicians, and poets — all shaped by the same island sun, now orbiting it from far away.
The Long Goodbye: Why So Many Left
Sri Lanka’s diaspora — now estimated at over 3 million people — didn’t all leave for the same reason.
But almost all left for the same feeling: “We deserve better.”
🔥 Some fled war.
Tamil families in the 1980s and 1990s escaped shelling, checkpoints, and ethnic violence. Many left with just memories and passport photos — hoping Canada, the UK, Australia, or France would be safer.
📉 Some escaped poverty.
From the 1970s onward, thousands of Sri Lankan women left to become domestic workers in the Middle East. Many sent money home — at great personal cost. Some found dignity. Others found heartbreak. Many endured years without seeing their children, just so their children could see a better future.
🎓 Some chased opportunity.
Scholarships. Jobs. Better education for their kids. These weren’t “brain drain” stories — they were survival strategies for smart people in a slow system.
Today, Sri Lanka is one of the world’s top exporters of trained professionals — a bittersweet badge of honor.
Where They Are Now
The Sri Lankan diaspora stretches across continents like a tea stain on a white shirt. You’ll find them in:
- Toronto: So many Sri Lankan Tamils, it’s called “Jaffna West.”
- Melbourne: Cricket, curry, and a thriving Sinhala-speaking population.
- London: Home to the Burgher revival and posh aunties who still bake love cake.
- Doha, Dubai, Riyadh: Economic lifelines built by Sri Lankan labor.
- New Jersey and LA: Where second-generation kids still say “ape amma” but vote Democrat.
There are Sri Lankan Buddhist temples in Berlin. Hindu kovils in Paris. And one auntie in every diaspora who claims to make the best fish cutlets — and might be right.
The Remittance Economy: Love Sent in Rupees
In 2023 alone, Sri Lanka received over $6 billion in remittances — mostly from migrant workers.
That’s not just money.
That’s mothers missing weddings, fathers working double shifts, and young people aging in foreign lands just to keep homes running back on the island.
Remittances have kept Sri Lanka afloat during economic collapse, political crises, and currency chaos. It’s the diaspora’s silent protest and greatest act of loyalty.
Homesick in High-Definition
Ask any Sri Lankan abroad what they miss, and the answers come fast:
- “The smell of the first rain on dry earth.”
- “Eating hot pol sambol and parippu on banana leaves.”
- “Arguing politics at the lunch table.”
- “Hearing the temple bell at sunset.”
- “Getting scolded by random uncles like they’re your dad.”
- “That feeling — of knowing where everything is, even with your eyes closed.”
Even the chaos becomes nostalgia: the slow banks, the fast tuk-tuks, the coconut trees that never needed permission to lean like that.
They miss the untranslatable. The unrepeatable.
The Sri Lankan-ness of it all.
Holding On & Letting Go: Identity in Two Worlds
Diaspora life is duality.
Your kids speak more English than Sinhala or Tamil.
You eat rice and curry, but now with quinoa.
You have a flag in your heart and a passport in your hand — and sometimes they argue.
Many live with survivor’s guilt:
- Why did I get out when others didn’t?
- Why do I complain about the West when I fled the East?
- Can I ever go back and truly belong?
And yet, there’s pride. Massive pride. In being Lankan.
Lankan and Canadian. Lankan and British. Lankan and global.
The Return: Visiting Home or Coming Back for Good?
Every December, flights to Colombo are packed with Lankans in hoodies, holding gifts, kids, and complicated emotions.
Some return to show their children where they came from.
Some come back for weddings, funerals, and political protests.
A few return for good — trying to rebuild what they once had to flee.
It’s never easy. The country has changed. They have changed.
But the pull? The pull is primal. Deep. Almost divine.
Because home, for Sri Lankans, is not perfect.
It’s just irreplaceable.
What the Diaspora Teaches Them
1. You can love a place fiercely — even from far away.
2. You can leave pain behind — and still carry pride.
3. Belonging is not a location. It’s a language of the heart.
4. Exile creates advocates. Distance can deepen loyalty.
5. Home is not where you were born — it’s where you never stop looking back.
Final Thought: You Can Leave. But You Won’t Forget.
Sri Lanka may be small, but its people — oh, they travel wide.
With heritage in their suitcases.
With heartbreak in their eyes.
With hope in their hearts.
To be Sri Lankan in the diaspora is to live between worlds — and somehow belong to both.
And that’s not exile. That’s evolution.
Coming Soon: My Sri Lanka – Part 7
“What’s Next for the Pearl of the Indian Ocean?”
About the Author
John is an entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of JS Morlu, LLC, a Virginia based CPA firm with multiple software ventures including www.FinovatePro.com, www.Recksoft.com and www.Fixaars.com . With operations spanning multiple countries, John is on a mission to build global infrastructure that empowers small businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He believes in hard truths, smart execution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. When he’s not writing or building, he’s challenging someone to a productivity contest—or inventing software that automates it.
