Spongers of migrant relatives and work-shy younger generation in Sri Lanka

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(January 03, 2011, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) A friend of a woman living in London visited the woman’s sister in Colombo taking with her a parcel for her. The sister invited this friend to stay for dinner. Strangely there was no smell of cooking coming from the kitchen and as the friend sat down with the family at the table it was laden with string hoppers, pol sambol, mutton curry, prawns and the whole works. When she complimented her host on the delicious meal she laughed and said she did not cook them but ordered them from a restaurant since it was much easier that way.

The woman who regularly sends her sister money earns her living making string-hoppers, thosai and pittu to be sold in restaurants and shops. And the sister living in Colombo does not have the time to make string hoppers!!!

Many Sri Lankans living abroad work long hours and hardly have time for a good holiday even during Christmas. They fear that if they took holidays their jobs would be gone what with the rising unemployment in the West and generally the world over. Particularly in London there is a long waiting list for jobs in the catering and hotel industry and vans converge at specific points to collect workers to be taken to these work places and building sites for very low daily wages.

Then there was this family who invited over a hundred guests to a wedding at Hilton at Rs 5000 a head. The young man who bore the cost of the wedding is an asylum seeker working illegally round the clock in three different shops while avoiding immigration officials.

These two incidents are not exceptions but the norm when those who had managed to go West and found employment send money regularly to their family thinking of the hardships they are undergoing particularly in the North and East. But comparatively those who receive foreign remittances from relatives live a life of absolute luxury and it is sickening to know that they are not encouraged to earn for themselves.

Using their credit cards to obtain loans at heavy interest, then working day and night to pay off the interest but not letting their family back home know they are actually working in factories and as cleaners and maids in hotels out of sheer embarrassment or cause them anxiety the migrants are in fact encouraging laziness among our already laid back generation in Sri Lanka.

While even children of wealthy parents work part-time to save for university education or to buy their little luxuries in the West, Sri Lankan parents pay for their children’s upkeep even after they have finished their university education. Until they get a plum job in the mercantile or government sectors they depend on their parents to provide them with the necessities of life.

They would not be seen dead working as sales assistants or waiters in hotels and relieve their parents’ burden should they possess a degree. The sad state of our economy can partly be blamed on the young generation for whom hard manual labour is anathema.

I wonder if the Ministry of Employment or a think-tank ever undertook a study of the unemployed among the young generation. This malady of idleness which is common to most developing countries needs particular attention if we are to raise our heads above the burden of foreign debt and dependence on foreign aid. Instead of forever pre-empting and negotiating the next IMF and World Bank grants the government should take a more proactive course in forcing those who are able to work.

It would be not a bad scheme to enforce laws to make the bone-idle work for their living and make not working a punishable offence. Incentives could also be given to them for self-employment not unlike the Janasaviya Program of the Late President Premadasa.

Since we are now in rehabilitation and reconstruction mood post-war, there are plentiful opportunities for the jobless to be involved in and not wait for that white collar job in the city or migrate to foreign climes for greener pastures. There is no pot of gold awaiting you in the West. On the contrary your troubles just begin when you venture abroad.