The present study concentrates on the lifestyles and experie~ces of British-born young Tamils, and explores various components of their identities. Not many sociological studies have been condu~ted on the Tamil community in Britain. The study approaches its subject area through combining detailed ethnographic and interview research on young British Tamils with a consideration of wider arguments relating to ethnicity, migration, diaspora and youth. The findings are organised in terms of the four key themes of traditional culture, friendship, media, and politics, each one combined with relevant conceptual and empirical theorisations. Diasporic theories help to understand broader trends relating to various aspects of identity and these contribute towards the development of theories on minority youth inter-culture and newethnicities. Specifically, the study focuses on British-born young Tamils based in London, aged between 16 - 29. The ethnography focuses on their cohesiveness as a group, their relationship with parents and traditional Tamil culture and with other elements of British society, including White British youth culture and ethnic minority youth cultures. This qualitative study deploys research techniques together with interviews and ethnographic observations to examine current understanding of cultural identities, ethnicity and community. The analysis highlights the complex and dynamic nature of the identities of the young respondents and their experiences of being British-Tamils. The notion of hybridisation starts to figure quite strongly with the development of intercultural forms of mixed identities relating to the maintenance of traditional culture, friendship patterns and media interests. Interestingly however, young Tamils' political engagement with recent political events has developed a greater awareness of their Tamil identity and politicised youth ethnicity than before. The implications may be observed in terms of a greater impact upon their future cultural orientations - an increase In Tamil media usage, more interest in their mother tongue and the development of connections with the transnational Tamil community. ii.

This thesis presents a sub-national comparative analysis of the nexus between migration and development using the case of two disparate migrant communities (from the Upper East and Eastern regions of Ghana) in the UK. The aim is to examine how inherent socio-economic inequalities prior to emigration impact on emigrants’ migration patterns, experiences, transnational activities and, ultimately, development outcomes at the micro and meso levels in the sending country. I argue, in this thesis, that the focus by development economists and most migration researchers on national-level macro analysis, as well as ‘location specific’ or single-site sub-national analysis, of the centrality of remittances to the enhancement of development at ‘home’ masks important nuances that are revealed by a comparative sub-national analysis. This study uses a case study approach, whereby two migrant communities are investigated in detail within their pre-migration contexts. This allows for a deeper understanding of how transnational migration practices and/or processes are influenced by, and influence their context. It examines regional socio-economic inequalities and the interconnections between migration stage, spatial scales and local development. This is achieved through a fifteen-month fieldwork using multiple research methods (key-informant interviews, in-depth structured and semi-structured interviews, surveys, participant observation and library research) in order to corroborate and triangulate findings from different sources. The thesis takes a spatiotemporal perspective in the migration-development nexus debate. Respondents for this research include economic migrants and refugees/forced migrants. Among others, I conclude that globalisation and access to effective, yet relatively cheap, technological and communications facilities have bolstered individualistic migratory decision making thus reducing the centrality of the family or household as the unit of analysis in the causes and consequences of migration discourses. Overall, the thesis aims to contribute a new, broader, and more inclusive perspective to migration research by arguing that migration-development phenomena are better appreciated through a comprehensive approach that encompasses migrants and sending communities and underlines the relationship between the two within a sub-national context.