Why Staten Island?
The Sri Lankans occupying Staten Island are now rumored to be more than one third of the entire Sri Lankan population in New York City as well as being the largest home for Sri Lankan people outside of Sri Lanka.
Recent data has proven all but impossible to locate but estimates suggest that the population has swelled because of the Sri Lankan Civil War and following financial crisis. The Sri Lankan population is now suspected to be about 5,000 people on Staten Island, a massive increase from the 799 Sri Lankans in 2000.
Why Staten Island?
Research indicates that the surge of Sri Lankan populous in the Tompkinsville area is due more in part to friendly faces than economic status. Because of the more suburban setting and more affordable property some of the earlier Sri Lankan immigrants moved to Staten Island and offered their home as a place to help new immigrants get their bearings and settle in the new country. “Leslie Gunaratne says that his family was the first from Sri Lanka to settle on Staten Island when they moved into their three-bedroom apartment on Targee Street on May 1, 1967…. In just a few months, he helped his five brothers, four sisters and their families move to the U.S. … By the time Gunaratne moved to Houston in 1979, he estimates that 80 percent of the roughly 500 Sri Lankans on Staten Island ‘were connected to me by blood or marriage.’” Also, for members of the community who had to find jobs in the city, Tompkinsville is practical for its proximity to the ferry.
Fernandes, N.F.P. “Points of Entry: Sri Lankan enclave .” City Limits. N.p., 01/04/2000. Web. 20 Mar 2011. <http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/2283/points-of-entry-sri-lankan-enclave>.
