Godwin, Matthew; (2018) A force in foreign affairs? Tamil diaspora interest group lobbying in Canada and the United Kingdom. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Foreign policy observers have deliberated for decades on the influence of diasporas on host country foreign policy, and by extension on civil wars abroad. The 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka led to an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils, which have since formed large diasporas in Canada and the United Kingdom. Through the formation of sophisticated interest groups, the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in both countries have undertaken to influence foreign policy toward the civil war and its aftermath. While the scholarship has discussed diaspora influence on foreign policy in great detail in the United States and elsewhere, identifying a number of factors believed to impact diaspora influence, the literature has spent less time considering this question in parliamentary democracies. Through a most-similar, cross case comparative approach I delve into two foreign policy decision-making processes in Canada and the United Kingdom to determine if and when Tamil diaspora interest groups influenced Canadian and British foreign policy. I argue that in all four temporal and spatial cases explored, Tamil diaspora interest groups had influence over decision-making, but that they had more influence in the UK despite facing greater domestic and international constraints.

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