Tamils of the Tundra
September 2002 - 10 mins
AS A NEW WAVE OF CONCERN ABOUT IMMIGRATION SWEEPS ACROSS EUROPE, AND THE SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES ITS HISTORIC PEACE TALKS WITH THE TAMILS TIGERS, WE TRAVEL TO THE CONTINENTS NORTHERNMOST TIP TO EXAMINE ONE UNLIKELY EXAMPLE OF INTEGRATION. FROM ARCTIC NORWAY, THIS IS THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE TAMILS OF THE TUNDRA.
The town of Vardo is about as far north as you can get in Europe without falling into the Barents Sea.
The sun disappears for 2 months in winter, its snowbound for most of the year and its population of 26 hundred and falling rarely see temperatures creep above zero.
Vardo depends on fish, and the Aarsaether [OR-SETTER] fish factory survives thanks to a community thats transplanted itself halfway around the world from tropical Sri Lanka.
Civil conflict brought these Tamil refugees to Oslo, but the prospect of work brought them the further 1,500 kilometres to Vardo, deep in the Arctic Circle.
Few Norwegians want to live in this harsh climate, and fewer still are prepared to do this kind of manual labour. The Tamils, willing and dextrous workers, are credited with saving the local fish industry.
Not all the Tamils here are doing manual labour Ravi Phuraisingan has been a shift manager since 1993, and has the delicate job of mediating between the Norwegian management, the Tamils and the 18 other nationalities who work here.
Though he learned English at home in Sri Lanka, he now finds it easier to speak in Norwegian.
My job is very challenging, everybody working here has a different background, and it's not easy. But over time Ive become more familiar with Norwegian culture, and the people here, and things have worked out fine.
The first time we saw snow we were a bit scared of it it was very strange. We were very scared to go out during the first year, but after a while we got used to it.
Meet the original Arctic Tamils. Husband and wife Sundaram and Sivayogam Sivanesan were the first Tamils to arrive here in 1987.
Vardo has been their home ever since. Both their children were born here, son Kenneth (KEN-NET) and his elder sister Silje (SIL-YA), playing here with next doors three-year-old.
They grew up with snow, and their parents no longer fear it. The Sivanesans have become as familiar and integral a part of the local community as the Larsens and Nilsens.
UPSOT talking to Yasmin
When they come over to play, neighbours children get more than tobogganing partners, they also gain glimpses into a remote culture, like the Sivanesans wedding in Sri Lanka.
Siva is at the heart of Vardos Tamil community. As well as her day job as a kindergarten teacher, she runs a shop selling Asian goods, and in 1997 became an elected local representative of the Christian Party on the town council.
UPSOT conversation
Its parents night at the town school.
Siva is on hand to help, translate and mediate. Her task tonight to encourage a new pupil and her mother to speak Norwegian.
Some of the Tamils who come here are not interested in learning Norwegian, they only want to work, but I think they have to learn. So I tell them and their children you must learn Norwegian. At school the Tamil children want to play together, but I tell them they should play with Norwegian children, or at least speak Norwegian to each other. I say the same to my children - you should not speak Tamil here in school or outside.
UPSOT boys shouting
Sivas own children set a good example - football-mad Kenneth is very much part of the team - even is his finishing lacks the quality of his hero David Beckham.
But like most Tamils here, Siva doesnt believe integration means assimilation, abandoning all Tamil identity.
She doesnt mind Kenneth becoming one of the local lads, but its different for girls.
UPSOT Tamil music
Siva makes sure Silje spends her free time learning Tamil traditions. While she wants her to be comfortable in the place of her birth, she doesnt want her to adopt all Norwegian practices.
I think about this all the time, now she's growing up. I don't want here to follow the Norwegian culture, nor completely to follow Tamil culture, especially for marriage.
I think she has to marry a Tamil man - there I have to draw the line. Its OK for her to follow some other Norwegian ways, but not all. Tamil women dont go out to restaurants and dont drink - I don't want her to do that. I'm very strict about that I tell her, we are Tamils, and you cannot have a boyfriend. I hope she marries a Tamil man.
Sunday morning at the Vardo Hotel, regular coffee-and-gossip session for Vardos locals.
There are no Tamils here, but no one sees that as a matter of surprise of regret.
I've been working with the Tamils since they came here. I have a very positive impression of them as working people, and have nothing bad to say about them - they've done a good job for the fishing industry. Outside work we don't have that much contact with them, they have their families, and tend to stick together.
I remember when the first Tamils arrived here. It was summertime, and I remember saying let them live through one winter and we wont see them again". That didn't happen though, and some of them have now been here for nearly 20 years. They accept us, and we accept them. I cant see any drawbacks.
For some, there may even be something to learn from their new Tamil neighbours.
Ive seen how their families are good at sticking together, and theres close co-operation between the families. Theres maybe not so much of up here amongst us locals here, to put it like that.
UPSOT meeting
Another interminable late-night sitting of Vardos Municipal Health Committee.
Among those trying to keep their eyes open is Kuberan Thurairajah hes been in Norway since 1987, a Vardo resident since 1992, and is now an elected Socialist Party representative, working at the local immigration office.
UPSOT Kuberan speaking
Kuberan was raised in Sri Lankas hierarchical culture, but hes learned to adapt to Scandinavian egalitarian consensus-building on the smallest of details of clinic budget funding.
In Sri Lanka you have to follow the party, party leader and party group leader maybe. Here you can work what you want and you can tell what you want against your party leader, against your party group leader so it's (unclear) interesting so you have....sometimes you are , they discuss, it's very long time to discuss small things, i think so. As a Tamil I think, it's not necessary to use 3, 4 hours.
Unlike Siva, Kuberan is thinking about returning to Sri Lanka if the current negotiations bring a permanent peace.
But though a strong supporter of the Tamil Tigers, he wouldnt consider continuing as a politician he says its too dangerous.
UPSOT shift bell rings
But Tamil numbers are decreasing in Vardo. Their places on the cutting line are gradually being taken by Iraqis, Afghans and Russians.
The numbers of Tamils in Vardo, which peaked at more than 250, or 10% of the population, in 1994, has now dwindled to a fifth of that.
But theyre not moving to Jaffna at least not yet. Theyre moving to Oslo, and for the same reasons that has seen Vardos Norwegian population decline; better jobs, better schools, a milder climate.
A sign, now that they have Norwegian citizenship and speak the languague, that they are becoming regular Norwegians.
Especially the generation of Norwegian-born Tamils, like Kenneth. Now that peace talks are under way, his parents are considering a family visit to Sri Lanka. But Kenneth says he doesnt want to go he cant stand the heat there.
But now that thigns are cooling down in Sri Lanka, Tamil refugees around the world are asking themselves where they really belong.
September 2002 - 10 mins
AS A NEW WAVE OF CONCERN ABOUT IMMIGRATION SWEEPS ACROSS EUROPE, AND THE SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES ITS HISTORIC PEACE TALKS WITH THE TAMILS TIGERS, WE TRAVEL TO THE CONTINENTS NORTHERNMOST TIP TO EXAMINE ONE UNLIKELY EXAMPLE OF INTEGRATION. FROM ARCTIC NORWAY, THIS IS THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE TAMILS OF THE TUNDRA.
The town of Vardo is about as far north as you can get in Europe without falling into the Barents Sea.
The sun disappears for 2 months in winter, its snowbound for most of the year and its population of 26 hundred and falling rarely see temperatures creep above zero.
Vardo depends on fish, and the Aarsaether [OR-SETTER] fish factory survives thanks to a community thats transplanted itself halfway around the world from tropical Sri Lanka.
Civil conflict brought these Tamil refugees to Oslo, but the prospect of work brought them the further 1,500 kilometres to Vardo, deep in the Arctic Circle.
Few Norwegians want to live in this harsh climate, and fewer still are prepared to do this kind of manual labour. The Tamils, willing and dextrous workers, are credited with saving the local fish industry.
Not all the Tamils here are doing manual labour Ravi Phuraisingan has been a shift manager since 1993, and has the delicate job of mediating between the Norwegian management, the Tamils and the 18 other nationalities who work here.
Though he learned English at home in Sri Lanka, he now finds it easier to speak in Norwegian.
My job is very challenging, everybody working here has a different background, and it's not easy. But over time Ive become more familiar with Norwegian culture, and the people here, and things have worked out fine.
The first time we saw snow we were a bit scared of it it was very strange. We were very scared to go out during the first year, but after a while we got used to it.
Meet the original Arctic Tamils. Husband and wife Sundaram and Sivayogam Sivanesan were the first Tamils to arrive here in 1987.
Vardo has been their home ever since. Both their children were born here, son Kenneth (KEN-NET) and his elder sister Silje (SIL-YA), playing here with next doors three-year-old.
They grew up with snow, and their parents no longer fear it. The Sivanesans have become as familiar and integral a part of the local community as the Larsens and Nilsens.
UPSOT talking to Yasmin
When they come over to play, neighbours children get more than tobogganing partners, they also gain glimpses into a remote culture, like the Sivanesans wedding in Sri Lanka.
Siva is at the heart of Vardos Tamil community. As well as her day job as a kindergarten teacher, she runs a shop selling Asian goods, and in 1997 became an elected local representative of the Christian Party on the town council.
UPSOT conversation
Its parents night at the town school.
Siva is on hand to help, translate and mediate. Her task tonight to encourage a new pupil and her mother to speak Norwegian.
Some of the Tamils who come here are not interested in learning Norwegian, they only want to work, but I think they have to learn. So I tell them and their children you must learn Norwegian. At school the Tamil children want to play together, but I tell them they should play with Norwegian children, or at least speak Norwegian to each other. I say the same to my children - you should not speak Tamil here in school or outside.
UPSOT boys shouting
Sivas own children set a good example - football-mad Kenneth is very much part of the team - even is his finishing lacks the quality of his hero David Beckham.
But like most Tamils here, Siva doesnt believe integration means assimilation, abandoning all Tamil identity.
She doesnt mind Kenneth becoming one of the local lads, but its different for girls.
UPSOT Tamil music
Siva makes sure Silje spends her free time learning Tamil traditions. While she wants her to be comfortable in the place of her birth, she doesnt want her to adopt all Norwegian practices.
I think about this all the time, now she's growing up. I don't want here to follow the Norwegian culture, nor completely to follow Tamil culture, especially for marriage.
I think she has to marry a Tamil man - there I have to draw the line. Its OK for her to follow some other Norwegian ways, but not all. Tamil women dont go out to restaurants and dont drink - I don't want her to do that. I'm very strict about that I tell her, we are Tamils, and you cannot have a boyfriend. I hope she marries a Tamil man.
Sunday morning at the Vardo Hotel, regular coffee-and-gossip session for Vardos locals.
There are no Tamils here, but no one sees that as a matter of surprise of regret.
I've been working with the Tamils since they came here. I have a very positive impression of them as working people, and have nothing bad to say about them - they've done a good job for the fishing industry. Outside work we don't have that much contact with them, they have their families, and tend to stick together.
I remember when the first Tamils arrived here. It was summertime, and I remember saying let them live through one winter and we wont see them again". That didn't happen though, and some of them have now been here for nearly 20 years. They accept us, and we accept them. I cant see any drawbacks.
For some, there may even be something to learn from their new Tamil neighbours.
Ive seen how their families are good at sticking together, and theres close co-operation between the families. Theres maybe not so much of up here amongst us locals here, to put it like that.
UPSOT meeting
Another interminable late-night sitting of Vardos Municipal Health Committee.
Among those trying to keep their eyes open is Kuberan Thurairajah hes been in Norway since 1987, a Vardo resident since 1992, and is now an elected Socialist Party representative, working at the local immigration office.
UPSOT Kuberan speaking
Kuberan was raised in Sri Lankas hierarchical culture, but hes learned to adapt to Scandinavian egalitarian consensus-building on the smallest of details of clinic budget funding.
In Sri Lanka you have to follow the party, party leader and party group leader maybe. Here you can work what you want and you can tell what you want against your party leader, against your party group leader so it's (unclear) interesting so you have....sometimes you are , they discuss, it's very long time to discuss small things, i think so. As a Tamil I think, it's not necessary to use 3, 4 hours.
Unlike Siva, Kuberan is thinking about returning to Sri Lanka if the current negotiations bring a permanent peace.
But though a strong supporter of the Tamil Tigers, he wouldnt consider continuing as a politician he says its too dangerous.
UPSOT shift bell rings
But Tamil numbers are decreasing in Vardo. Their places on the cutting line are gradually being taken by Iraqis, Afghans and Russians.
The numbers of Tamils in Vardo, which peaked at more than 250, or 10% of the population, in 1994, has now dwindled to a fifth of that.
But theyre not moving to Jaffna at least not yet. Theyre moving to Oslo, and for the same reasons that has seen Vardos Norwegian population decline; better jobs, better schools, a milder climate.
A sign, now that they have Norwegian citizenship and speak the languague, that they are becoming regular Norwegians.
Especially the generation of Norwegian-born Tamils, like Kenneth. Now that peace talks are under way, his parents are considering a family visit to Sri Lanka. But Kenneth says he doesnt want to go he cant stand the heat there.
But now that thigns are cooling down in Sri Lanka, Tamil refugees around the world are asking themselves where they really belong.