ABSTRACT
Until the twentieth century, migration frontiers (implying migration into uninhabited or sparsely populated parts of the country) were a common feature of the political landscape. They were considered essential for accommodating the fast-growing population of many states, for instance in Sri Lanka where succeeding governments have adopted a policy of sponsored planned migration to rural areas since the 1930s (Moore 1985, Peiris 1996). Most of these settlement schemes have been located in frontier areas claimed by the Tamil minority, and hence are seen as one of the major causes of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. However, the focus here will be on the less studied spontaneous frontier migration taking place in the wake of the government-sponsored settlement schemes. Increasing population density, landlessness and unemployment in southern Sri Lanka, combined with government land policies and the prevalent ideology of smallholder agriculture, have led to spontaneous out-migration from the south into the remote forested areas in the southeast. In this chapter, I examine the extent to which the interests of the spontaneous migrants coincide or clash with those of the Sri Lankan state. I will look into the state interests related to deforestation, rural development and political control as well as the migrants’ interests related to land, home and livelihood. Such state-migrant relations are a key dimension in understanding alternative geographies of development. Everyday politics matter (Rigg 2007) and these spontaneous migrants’ actions have influenced state policies in Sri Lanka. A spontaneous migrant is someone who chooses his destination and time of departure without the intervention of any institution. I will show how the frontier at Tanamalwila represents a space of opportunity and a place to live for inmigrants and how the frontier has changed from spontaneous settlements to more established villages. According to Tuan (1977: 6), ‘what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value.’ Thus, place is a distinctive type of space that is defined by the lived experiences of people. When people invest meaning in a portion of space and become attached to it in some way, it becomes place.
