Demelza Jones - Superdiverse Diaspora: Everyday Identifications of Tamil Migrants in Britain

Over the past decade, the concept of diversity has gained a leading place in academic thought, business practice, politics and public policy across the world. However, local conditions and meanings of diversity are highly dissimilar and changing. For these reasons, deeper and more comparative understandings of pertinent concepts, processes and phenomena are in great demand. This series will examine multiple forms and configurations of diversity, how these have been conceived, imagined, and represented, how they have been or could be regulated or governed, how different processes of inter-ethnic or inter-religious encounter unfold, how conflicts arise and how political solutions are negotiated and practiced, and what truly convivial societies might actually look like. By comparatively examining a range of conditions, processes and cases revealing the contemporary meanings and dynamics of diversity, this series will be a key resource for students and professional social scientists. It will represent a landmark within a field that has become, and will continue to be, one of the foremost topics of global concern throughout the twenty-first century. Reflecting this multi-disciplinary field, the series will include works from Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Law, Geography and Religious Studies. While drawing on an international field of scholarship, the series will include works by current and former staff members, by visiting fellows and from events of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Relevant manuscripts submitted from outside the Max Planck Institute network will also be considered.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15009

Cover illustration: Demelza Jones

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This book would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of the Tamil people who I met during my research. I am deeply grateful to the community associations and places of worship who were hospitable and helpful to a curious visitor, to the individuals and families who so warmly welcomed me into their homes and to all those who agreed to tell me about their lives, including sharing painful memories of war and displacement.

This project began as a PhD at the University of Bristol, funded by a studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number: ES/G016666/1). I am grateful to Dr Jon Fox and Dr Katharine Charsley for providing invaluable support and guidance while supervising the work, and to my thesis examiners, Professor Pnina Werbner and Dr Andrew Wyatt, who encouraged me to publish. Thanks to current and former colleagues at the University of Gloucestershire and Aston University who have engaged with my work through departmental seminars and reading groups and to Dr John Harrison (and Anne) for always being interested in what I was up to.

Sections of this book are reworked from Jones (2016) and Jones (2014) and I am grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers and editors whose work contributed to these publications, as well as the editorial and administrative staff at Palgrave Macmillan.

Finally, thank you to my loving family: to Marvin, Pete and Steve and especially to Christopher and Lyra.