Relocation Failures in Sri Lanka: A Short History of Internal Displacement and Resettlement

This book considers why and how states, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations and non-state actors design and administer resettlement schemes. Tens of millions of people are internally displaced and relocated each year to make way for dam and urban renewal projects or in the wake of war, cyclones and floods. This book challenges current understandings of displacement and the prevailing resettlement regimes. It is distinctive because it argues for a unitary treatment of forced migration, bringing together diverse, multi-disciplinary approaches. Beginning with an overview of the available literature on forced migration, it goes on to focus on the particular case of Sri Lanka which has experienced all three of the forced migration regimes discussed in the literature--development, conflict and natural disaster-induced displacement.