The Sri Lankan Population of Great Britain: Migration and Settlement

Research on Asian migration flows to and community creation in Great Britain has neglected the case of Sri Lankans. In fact Sri Lankans by 1991 constituted the sixth biggest Asian community, with over 39,000 residents of Britain having been born in Sri Lanka. An estimate of the population of Sri Lankan origins by the end of the 1990s suggests around 65,000 residents, including British-born offspring. Using information on country of birth from the 1991 British census, this paper discusses the characteristics of the Sri Lankan community. It is shown to be markedly different from other South Asian groups in a number of respects, most particularly through its extreme, and growing, geographical concentration in the South East and Greater London.