The Relationship of Homeland Nostalgia with Ethnic and National Identity: The Case of The Sri Lankan Diaspora

The paper aims to explore the relationship that Nostalgia for homeland can have on an affected immigrant’s ethnic identity and national identity, in the context of Sri Lankan migrants who have migrated to Canada; to explore how the role of social identities and collective emotional memories of the past shapes a migrants’ present-day identity. The uniqueness of the study comes from its sample (N = 143) which is a migrant group which resulted from fleeing a region affected by ethnic conflict and resettling in the host country, Canada. The study collected data via online questionnaires from Canadian citizens of Sri Lankan origin. The results show that there are strong correlations, between the identities and nostalgia. Major findings of the study are that first-generation immigrants tend to identify strongly with their ethnic identity and are highly nostalgic of their homeland, whilst second generation immigrants tend to identify with the Canadian national identity.