Interview with Lalith
Photo by Basudev Shrestha
Lalith did not know anything about Orlando, Florida before he received a job opportunity there, but he was willing to pick up his whole life and move to the United States to pursue that job opportunity. For my project, I interviewed Lalith, who is originally from Sri Lanka but moved to the U.S. from Singapore in 2001. Lalith is the father of my sister’s college roommate, and while I had never met Lalith before I interviewed him, my sister knows him and suggested I should reach out to him to help with the interview project. Lalith was more than willing to help, and I conducted the interview on Saturday, November 28th over Zoom. Following the interview, I used Otter.ai to help with the transcription, which I tried to keep as accurate as possible while maintaining readability. In the interview, we covered a wide range of topics, starting from the reason Lalith decided to migrate to and ending with talking about the Americanness of his daughters. Lalith’s story is intriguing because while he lines up with several characteristics of immigrants we have studied throughout the semester, his journey is unique, and he does not fit the mold of the most common immigrant experiences we have discussed throughout the semester.
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Photo by Jalitha Hewage on Unsplash
Before even beginning to talk about Lalith’s journey from Sri Lanka to Singapore to the United States, it is essential to understand why someone would want to leave Sri Lanka in the first place. In class, we talked about many different factors that push people out of one country and pull them into another, and one common factor is political or civil strife, which is the case in Sri Lanka. When asked about factors pushing people away from Sri Lanka, Lalith’s immediate response was “Sri Lanka is not a politically stable place.” Lalith then went on to talk about political corruption fueled by bribery, ethnic violence and terrorism, and civil wars in recent Sri Lankan history. Hearing Lalith talk about corruption and civil wars, I was immediately reminded of our class discussions about refugees from Central and South America who were forced to flee their countries for fear of their lives. While it was not a direct reason why Lalith left, the political situation in Sri Lanka has forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their country and find a new home.
Another major factor explaining immigration which we talked about in class was the labor market. Often, when there is an imbalance between labor supply and demand, people will either be pulled into a country or pushed out of it. In Sri Lanka, the labor market is a large push factor, as according to Lalith, “the opportunities [there] are not that great.” This statement is especially true for Lalith’s field, electrical engineering. Lalith says even though “there are a lot of electrical engineers… we don’t do much electrical or electronic development there.” The situation of electrical engineers in Sri Lanka is a great example of the labor supply being much higher than the labor demand in a certain country. As a result, the labor market is a push factor causing people to leave Sri Lanka, especially in the case of electrical engineers. Many Sri Lankan engineers end up leaving Sri Lanka to work in the U.S. or Australia, which is exactly what happened with Lalith.
After deciding to leave their home country because of the push factors, immigrants must decide where they want to go, which is where the pull factors come into play. Coming from Sri Lanka, where there are not many opportunities and the schools are “probably not fair,” it makes sense that two major pull factors would be opportunities and good education, which fall in line with what we discussed in class. Having already left Sri Lanka to work in Singapore, job opportunities were clearly a major pull factor for Lalith. However, perhaps a more important factor was the education system in the U.S. When he moved from Singapore, Lalith and his wife had two small daughters, and he says they “have always wanted to give them a good education.” When Lalith got the chance to move to Orlando, which had a job opportunity waiting for him in addition to good schools for his children, he was more than willing to pick up his life and move to the U.S.
Another one of the most important pull factors we talked about in class is the idea of migrant networks, and networking played a large part in Lalith’s decision to move to the United States. Prior to moving to Orlando, Lalith was working as a software engineer in Singapore, when he was notified by a friend about a job that was “like a dream” for him. Later in the interview, Lalith says he “didn’t know about Orlando until [he] found the job.” Even though Lalith had no idea about where he was going, the process of immigration became much easier because he knew someone who had already gone through it, and he knew there would be some semblance of a Sri Lankan community when he arrived in Orlando. Additionally, the company Lalith was applying for was run by a Sri Lankan, which further broke down the barriers for Lalith and encouraged him to move to the U.S. Having an employer from Sri Lanka greatly lowered the risks of moving to a foreign place, and it provided Lalith with the reward of an excellent job. And just like we studied in class, the chain did not stop with Lalith. After settling at the new company, Lalith was able to “recommend a few more engineers” from Sri Lanka who were recruited, and there were eight Sri Lankan engineers working at the same company with him. In addition to encouraging engineers to move to the U.S., Lalith also encouraged some of his family members to move to the U.S. to pursue a PhD, and he says he “always [tries] to influence people to come here.” What started with one Sri Lankan coming to the U.S. ultimately led to the formation of a migrant network, and it is a great example of how immigrants are pulled into a certain location.
After arriving in Orlando, Lalith was able to begin integrating into his community and the U.S. as a whole. This process was smooth for the most part, and it was helped largely by the fact that Lalith already had a job waiting for him, so he did not have to worry about any troubles related to finding a job, which can be a major issue for some immigrants. Lalith says, “the company actually took care of [him],” which was a major bonus for him. The only minor problem Lalith faced related to employment was his inability to switch jobs because of his visa. Lalith came to the U.S. on the H-1B visa, which is similar to the H-2A visa we talked about in class, but it is for specialty workers like engineers instead of agricultural workers. Even though the jobs being worked are different, the visas have many of the same stipulations, including not allowing employees to leave and work for a different company. This issue was not a big deal for Lalith, as he liked the company he worked for and “built a career there.” However, Lalith says he likes doing different things and did not “want to just do the same thing over and over again,” so he eventually wanted to move jobs. In order to switch jobs, Lalith had to apply for a green card, a process which took about four years for his family. Once he received the green card, Lalith was able to switch jobs, and he became indistinguishable from any other employee in the U.S.
Another important aspect of integration is integration into the immigrant’s community. Orlando is an extremely diverse place, and they are no strangers to welcoming immigrants into their community. In fact, Lalith says there are “about 50 families from Sri Lanka altogether” in Orlando. Living near families from one’s home country makes integration easier, and the immigrants are able to bring some of their culture and traditions with them to the new community, but assimilating was never a big problem for Lalith. He says, “nothing major ever happened to us,” and “we were received very well.” Part of this reception is due to Orlando being welcoming to immigrants, but Lalith believes much of the way he was treated was due to his attitude. Lalith is also helped by the fact that he already spoke English well before coming to the U.S., so there was no major language barrier, and any misunderstandings were “mostly due to the accent, not English language.” The language barrier is often a major problem for immigrants who do not speak Spanish, and many of them can struggle to get access to essential services for healthcare. Thankfully for Lalith, he was able to effectively communicate with everyone in the U.S., and he never faced any major problems with integration.
While Lalith never faced any discrimination or troubles with the language, he mentioned that the culture in the U.S. is quite different from the culture in Sri Lanka. Lalith credits most of the differences between the U.S. and Sri Lanka to the fact that Sri Lanka was a British colony, so there are many small differences like driving on the opposite side of the road. However, these small cultural differences never caused any real problems because “if you come here with an open mind, so you can always get adapted too.” One aspect separating Lalith and other Sri Lankans apart from many Americans is their religion, which is Buddhism. Even though Lalith is “not a very religious person,” he and his family still attend temple sometimes, although he says it is “more like a cultural gathering… not a religious ceremony.” Lalith has kept most of his few practices from Sri Lanka, and while he may not subscribe to the same religion as most people in the U.S., he still feels a strong connection to the U.S.
Usually, the last step of the immigration process is identifying more with the immigrant’s new country than the country they moved from, and sometimes this process can take generations to complete. Having lived in the U.S. for nearly twenty years, Lalith has already developed a strong American identity, but he still feels a strong connection to Sri Lanka as well. Lalith and his family still take occasional trips to Sri Lanka, and he says, “I still feel like home when I go back there,” although he adds he would not want to live there now that he is used to living in the United States. At first, Lalith found it difficult to leave Sri Lanka, due largely to leaving behind his parents and sisters. However, unlike some immigrants we discussed in class, Lalith was not responsible for taking care of his parents or sending them money, which often ties immigrants back to their home country. Lalith’s parents were receiving pensions, so his move to the United States was less about taking care of older generations and more about setting himself and future generations up for success, which is not always the case for immigrants. Even taking all this into account, Lalith’s strong American identity largely comes from his attitude. When asked about any differences in identity before and after becoming a citizen, lalith responded, “I didn’t feel a difference before and after.” Thus, Lalith’s identity was never tied to any kind of legal status, but it was about his mindset and where he lived.
Finally, when talking about the identity of immigrants, it is essential to examine the generations that were born in the United States. The process of integration and identification with the new country is often not considered complete until the second or third generation completely identifies as American. For Lalith, this process is already complete, as he feels his daughters “are very much Americans now.” Furthermore, Lalith says if his daughters were ever to go back to Sri Lanka and try to live there, “they would be lost.” He says they “can’t blend culturally in Sri Lanka,” signaling that the process of immigration for Lalith and his family has been completed.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Bradley Ferrer 0:00
Can you just start taking me through your process of immigration, starting with Sri Lanka and why you decided to leave?
Lalith 0:12
Well, my name is Lalith. So I grew up in Sri Lanka. I went to school there, I went to college there, and I studied engineering. I’m an electr- electrical and electronic engineer. Well, the reason why we came here is actually for the opportunities. But it all happened out of nowhere, actually, I – through a friend of mine, I got a job offer here. That’s – that’s what expedited everything. So we – I came to work for a company called Control Laser Corporation in Orlando. So that’s where I started my first job in the US. So this is not something I was, I mean, hunting for a long time. It just happened that way. So after – after my graduation, so I started working in Sri Lanka, I worked there for – for about two years as a electrical engineer for a Japanese company called Shin Nippon. And then, while I was there, I got a – and through another friend of mine actually got a job offer in Singapore. So I went to Singapore. So at the time I was – I was married with my wife, we didn’t have any children. So we went to Singapore, and I worked there as a software engineer, because my – my electronics engineering degree actually covered a lot in computer science as well. And also, prior to going to college, I had some experience in computer science. So that was one of the – one of my actually not my major, but that’s what I wanted to do always, as soon as I graduated from high school. In Sri Lanka, the opportunities are not that great. So there are a lot of electrical engineers; they mostly go into management and administration type work, because we don’t do much electrical or electronic development there. So for me, a single job offer was actually – that that was like a dream, actually, for me. So we just moved there without thinking pretty much. So that was a good opportunity. So that’s, that’s how it all started. So we live there in Singapore for about almost five years, from 1996 to 2001. And Savini and Sanuki, those are my daughters, they were born there. And I worked there, like two different jobs. I started as an electrical, rather a software engineer, for one company and then moved to another company after like two years, and from there while I was working there actually, I heard about this opportunity in the US, again, through a friend of mine. So this company who was looking for engineers at the time, was run by a Sri Lankan. So – so that’s how I got to know about the job and applied for it. And then we went through the employment visa process, which is called H1B. So we got our H1B after like six months actually took a while to process the application and get it approved. So I’m still in Singapore at that time. So we got the approval sometime in January of 2001, and then – so they gave me a ticket, and I didn’t quite get interviewed by anybody in the company. I just – everything happened through emails, but it’s through someone I know very well, but it was a recommendation actually. So the friend of mine actually recommended to them, so – so that’s how it all happened. So – so we moved here in February, right? Yeah, that was February 27 is the date that we arrived in the US. So the company has sent somebody to pick us up, and then they had a hotel arranged for us, so we all went and stayed in the hotel for about two weeks, until we found a apartment to move in. So that’s how I came here.
Bradley Ferrer 5:44
Right. So it sounds like it was less about planning to move away from Sri Lanka and more just a great opportunity came up for you?
Lalith 5:56
Correct. Correct. Yeah.
Bradley Ferrer 5:58
Okay. And then have you been at that job ever since?
Lalith 6:06
Well, I worked there for 13 years, believe it or not. And, yeah, that that was a good place to work, actually. So we had a good diversity there. Not – not when we first came actually. And when we first came, there wasn’t a big diversity in the company. But as time went by, I think they recognized more our talents, and our work ethics, and we – they like to more Sri Lankans actually, so I was able to recommend a few more engineers, and then we at a time actually, we had about eight Sri Lankan engineers working for this company. So – so it was – it was good. And then you know, after a while, like, if you stayed in the same place, it’s kind of get stagnant. Right. So – So they helped me with the next process, which is the green card application, right? So we applied for green card. And that took forever, actually, so it took about four years. Probably more, I think, when from the time you start the first application for green card, it took four or five years to happen, all that, because there was a huge backlog at the time; I think there’s the backlog is still there. So – so we got our green cards sometime in 2010, I think. I don’t have the exact date in my head right now. Around 2010, we got our green card. So until then, the thing is, you can’t quite move to different jobs at your will, because your visa category dictates that this visa is only valid for this job. So if you were to move, then you have to go through the same application process like – like somebody applying from some other country for a job here. So it goes through that whole process, so there’s a risk there. So that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t want to move also to a different company. So sorry, anyway, everything worked out. So I like the company. And then the area we settled here is also good, there are good schools. So this is when Savini and Sanuki were small. So they started schools here. So they were like two years and four years when we moved here. So they basically entire school. They went – they went to the same school here, so we didn’t move actually and we are still in the same area. So after like two years, we bought a house and – in 2003 that was – and then that’s where we live right now.
Bradley Ferrer 9:19
So did you – were you thinking about your children a lot when you decided to come to the US from Singapore?
Lalith 9:30
Well, that was one of the factors. We’ve always wanted to give them a good education. So we know – I mean US – in the US the education system is good. So we heard a lot about that actually. That’s – that’s one of the factors, for sure.
Bradley Ferrer 9:52
Okay, and then how did – you talked about getting a green card? How did that change how you found work? Was it – Did you switch jobs soon after the green card?
Lalith 10:08
No, we did – we did not actually. I mean, I did not. I mean, the company was very good to me, so I was able to go from electrical engineer to engineering manager of the department. So – so the company actually took care of me, so I built a career there. So therefore, I was – I worked for 13 years, like I said, so at least four years after my green card only I moved on and found another job and moved to a different company. So once again, the same reason is like, I like doing different – different things, right. So you don’t want to just do the same thing over and over again, stagnant in this place. So that’s why I decided to move to a different job. So since then, I – my field right now is electrical engineering. But I do most 50% of my time is spent on designing electrical systems and then another 50% designing and developing software for the systems. So industries, the laser sector, so we work with lasers all the time. There’s a cutting system, marking system, and now in this company I work for I make a laser surgery equipment, it’s a medical [uncleaer].
Bradley Ferrer 11:47
And you said, you got this job – or were referred from a friend, and then you referred several other Sri Lankan engineers?
Lalith 11:58
Mm hmm.
Bradley Ferrer 11:59
So is there a strong Sri Lankan community in Orlando, or is it just at that company specifically?
Lalith 12:08
There are some Orlando – if you if you look at Orlando, actually, Orlando is not a industrial city. So therefore, there are not many opportunities here. We have about I would say about 50 families in Sri Lanka – from Sri Lanka all together, but they are not mostly engineers, actually, they are – they work different, different industries. And they came here, I guess different ways, actually, the people I know, we closely associate with mostly engineers. So they all came looking for my kind of jobs, engineering type of jobs. So if you look at not not many electrical engineers, so engineers here in Orlando area, but if you go to a place like Los Angeles or New York, you will find a lot more Sri Lankans living.
Bradley Ferrer 13:22
Okay. And so, do you think you would have ended up in Orlando if it weren’t for the job? Or would you maybe consider somewhere else?
Lalith 13:35
I would have considered somewhere else. Yeah, that’s – I had no idea about Orlando, actually I didn’t know about Orlando until I found the job. Then, after that, only I looked around and looked like it’s a good city to live in. Actually, I mean so we liked it here.
Bradley Ferrer 13:52
Right. Okay. And then moving on, How – can you talk a little bit about how you were received as an immigrant in the US and in Florida initially?
Lalith 14:09
Well, we didn’t have any issue, I would say. I mean, we were received very well. Most of the time, it’s – it’s your attitude also, right?
Bradley Ferrer 14:24
Right.
Lalith 14:25
So even if you see some backlash or something like that, we were not quite paying any attention. I mean, we know how we know all that and [unclear]. But we never had any incidents that I can talk about. I mean, there’s nothing major happened happened to us. I mean, nobody discriminated us or anything like that, either in the workplace or the surrounding that we live – we live in. We didn’t experience anything like that.
Bradley Ferrer 15:00
Okay. And –
Lalith 15:02
[Unclear] very well, and it was good.
Bradley Ferrer 15:04
That’s good. And did you speak English before you came to the US?
Lalith 15:10
Yes, Yes, I did, as a second language. So my – so we spoke Sinhalese. That’s the – that’s one of the native Sri Lankan languages. It’s actually a unique language to Sri Lanka. There’s no nobody else speaks Sinhalese and then the second language in Sri Lanka is Tamil. There’s a minority population that speak Tamil there. So it’s about I would say 72 – 70% of them are – speak Sinhalese, and then another 15% of Sri Lankans speak Tamil, and there’s another 15% of them speak various other things, because they are from different places and things like that. So there’s a good diversity in Sri Lanka as well. So, we – most of our schools at that time, you have to study in Sinhalese. So you – you do your primary, rather elementary or middle school, all the way through to high school, we studied everything in Sinhalese. All the subject matter was taught in Sinhalese and then you learn English as a second language. It’s like you learn Spanish or German here or French here. That’s – but when you go to college, depending on the field of study, like I went to engineering school, so everything in engineering school is taught in English, So therefore, you are sort of forced to learn more English than what’s taught in your school. So – so therefore, that’s probably the time I started speaking in English. Before that, we never spoke English. So – so it was tough actually when you go to college, so now you have to learn a language, speak that language, and learn everything in that language. So that – there was a bit of a challenge there. So that’s when you are forced to speak English. Other than that, you don’t need to speak English.
Bradley Ferrer 17:35
Right. So then it sounds like there was not much of a language barrier when you got to the US.
Lalith 17:42
Not, not a big language barrier, I would say, but there was a – it’s the accent, sometimes. So sometimes when I say something, people don’t understand. So I repeat, and same thing when somebody here spoke to me some – I have to basically say, “Excuse me” and ask again. So, that’s mostly due to the accent, not English language, I would say.
Bradley Ferrer 18:16
And then what about cultural barriers or anything like that?
Lalith 18:23
Well, I mean, culturally, there’s a huge barrier here, right? Where we grew up, everything is different. So – but if you come here with an open mind, so you can always get adapted too. So basically, you can name anything, I think everything is different. So the way people talk different the way people smile different way, when you walk into a place, you would open the door for somebody and hold the door if other people are coming, right, so you don’t just slam the door on your face, but back in Sri Lanka, or even in Singapore, that wasn’t a practice. So you just walk in, let’s say you’re going into a mall, you just walk in, you open the door and walk in and you don’t care who’s walking behind you. You don’t even look back, actually, you might be slamming the door on somebody else’s face. But that – this is this is a small thing, but you don’t – these type of things you don’t even think about when you go to other countries, right? So people don’t think like that, because that’s the – that’s a – that’s how the environment is right? But when you come here, so that – you start thinking about others, right? So that’s – that’s a difference. So that’s a small difference, but it’s a – it’s a significant one. I would say that tells you that people care about you, right? So you won’t – you won’t first do it, but you see somebody do it for you, right? So that’s how you learn it. So you learn things by looking at others and learn things by listening to others. So, that’s how you get adapted. So, the driving is different. Se drive on the left hand side of the road in Sri Lanka. Or like British because Sri Lanka was a British colony. Most systems you get in Sri Lanka actually, British not not US. So you can see, I mean, when you go to England, the systems are always opposite. So you put the light switch all on the wrong side also. So, here, if you on by flipping it up, there on is flipping it down. So, things – things are very, very much different. So that part of the world, even Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, most of those places have more British influence than the US influence. So there’s a huge cultural difference, therefore.
Bradley Ferrer 21:10
And what about religion?
Lalith 21:12
Religion, I’m not a very religious person. So we – we are Buddhists by birth. So my parents were Buddhists. And then I’m not a practicing Buddhist. So it’s my wife, so are our children right now. So we are Buddhist, by birth, that’s all. So we go to temple sometimes. So we go to temple in certain events. So it’s more like cultural gathering, for me not – not a religious ceremony or anything like that. So yeah.
Bradley Ferrer 21:59
And you didn’t practice even when you were in Sri Lanka?
Lalith 22:03
No. I mean, we would go to certain events, maybe once a year or twice a year, you go to a certain event, major event in Sri Lanka, like, I don’t know how much you know about Buddhism, I mean Buddhism, we have a major event called Vesak. Vesak is actually a celebration of lord Buddha’s birth, so people decorate their houses during that time, light lanterns and make all kinds of things actually. So, we do that as a tradition. Not here though. We did that at the time in Sri Lanka. And then that’s one of the times you go to the temple. Things like that, only a few major events you would attend other than that I’m not a frequent templegoer or worshipper, I would say,
Bradley Ferrer 23:07
But it sounds like you didn’t lose any of your practices when you came to the US?
Lalith 23:13
Not really. There’s one Sri Lankan temple here in Tampa. That’s about 100 miles from here. So we occasionally go there, but not not as a regular practice.
Bradley Ferrer 23:29
Okay. And then, do you have family in the US? Or are you the only ones that moved here?
Lalith 23:42
We don’t have any immediate family here. Time to time, like, my sister was here for about five years here, because his – her husband actually did the PhD program up in Pittsburgh. So during that time, that was about – they left about five years ago, if I can remember right, yeah. So they lived here about five years and went back to Sri Lanka. Now, I have a – one of my nieces living here, doing – once again, studying for PhD, she’s at Connecticut – University of Connecticut with her husband, so they’re both doing PhD programs there.
Bradley Ferrer 24:38
And when they decided to move to the US for education, did you – were you in contact with them? Did you talk about what it was like here?
Lalith 24:49
Yeah. I always try to influence people to come here. It’s – it’s, I mean, I like to have my family around, but it’s not always easy to come here. Most of the time if if a Sri Lankan would – if they want to immigrate to a place the US is not their first choice. So they – it’s, most of them go to Australia. There’s a big Sri Lankan community in Australia. I don’t know how it all started, but I would say at least a million people living in – Sri Lankans live in Australia right now. But here, maybe 100,000 all together, I would say, yeah.
Bradley Ferrer 25:47
And is – what are some of the barriers to people leaving Sri Lanka or maybe pushing them away? I know, you talked about – there’s not a lot of opportunities there. But is there anything else?
Lalith 26:04
Well, Sri Lanka is not a politically stable place. So these politicians are corrupt, okay. So they are – corrupt means they are openly corrupt, most of them are. There’s nothing you can do about it because they are all like that. So. So it’s a two party system, mainly just like here. So sometimes what happens is, when one party comes to power, they sort of buy people from the other party. So these politicians, they really don’t have much ethics, I would say. So if they get paid more, they will switch the parties. So ultimately, although you have two party system, ultimately, these are the same people running the country, even if there’s a party change happens, but you’re not going to expect anything different from these politicians because it’s the same type of people running the country. So it’s a – it’s a third world country. So there are a lot of poor people there. And also, there are a lot of rich people there. Also, if you go to Colombo. Colombo is the capital – commercial capital of Sri Lanka. It’s not the political capital, because it used to be what – used to be Colombo. But 30 years ago, they changed the official capital to be Sri Jayawardenepura. So that’s where the parliament is. Parliament is the biggest – like the British Parliament, it’s that – it’s like the – so it’s a British system also. So we have a we have a president. That’s different from British system, but there’s also a Prime Minister. So we have Prime Minister and ministers and members of the Parliament. So that’s how the system over there is. So that – so the President is fairly new actually that was introduced about 30 years ago. So there are no checks and balances, like here. It’s not a system like here, so if you take the president – president can do anything he wants, basically. And if you – education system is good, but it’s probably not fair, in a way. Like, if you go to a rural place, far away from Colombo, you don’t get the same education because the problem is, the teachers don’t like to go there and work in these places, because there’s no facilities there. So the schools are small, and if you go to a place like that, you can’t get a house with electricity most of the time. So, therefore, nobody wants to go there and live there. So therefore, you don’t get the same education there. So they – there’s a huge gap or – the difference in the education you get, compared to Colombo. I didn’t grow up in Colombo, but I – a city called Kandy. That’s where we grew up. So that’s in the central part of the country. So the Kandy’s okay. So, education, there is okay. There are maybe like 10 or 15 different cities and suburbs of those cities are okay. But most of the country is not that. That’s probably maybe 15 or 20% of the whole population actually live around those cities. So the opportunities are not there, therefore. It’s not a tech – I mean, people, people are smart, I would say. I mean, everybody I know, actually, they do quite well, because they are all part of the same college or same school or something like that. But that’s a very small percentage. So that’s one reason why people move out: the political system and the other opportunity, availability of opportunities, basically. And then, when we were growing up, there were two other civil wars happened. We had a, I mentioned people who speak Tamil, right? So we have a minority ethnic population there. So they – so it started as a ethnic problem sometime in, I think it’s 1975. Around that time when it really started. But it became a major problem around 1983. So there were riots and people fighting and things like that. So they – during that time, actually, the government declared this group of people as terrorists, because they were – they were actually attacking civilians at that time. So they will set – set off bombs in roadside and blow up busses of people and things like that, so it became a real problem around that time. So therefore, they declared them as a terrorist group. So those violence actually became pretty bad with time. And then – so that problem was going on at that time actually, it only ended in 2009, after we moved here. And then there was another civil unrest happened during the 1990s, I would say ’89 and 1990s. That was more of a just youth people not having enough opportunities, once again, they – their unemployment was really high at that time, and the government wasn’t doing anything about it. So there were a lot of young people without jobs. So they started this movement called JVP at that time. And then they were – that also became really violent. And they were demonstrating initially, nothing happened. For the demonstration, they didn’t get any attention from the government, so they started doing other stuff, like killing people and destroying property and things like that. Somehow, government was able to control that; within about a year or two things got under control. So that type of things actually pop up. here and they’re even now, but they don’t last very long. So the ethnic problem was the biggest problem we had actually that lasted at least 40 years, I would say.
Bradley Ferrer 34:16
Okay. And then you still have family in Sri Lanka, correct?
Lalith 34:21
Yes, I do.
Bradley Ferrer 34:22
Was it difficult to leave them?
Lalith 34:27
Yeah, it was. It was actually. My mom and dad were still living at that time when I – when we left. They passed away about five years ago. My – I have three sisters. The sister who was in the US for five years, that’s my younger sister. Now she lives in Vienna, Austria. The other two sisters are older to me. So they still live in Sri Lanka, and we go maybe every three years or so to see them.
Bradley Ferrer 35:09
And are you responsible for helping them or sending them money or anything like that?
Lalith 35:16
No, not right now. I mean, I did have my parents – when when they were still living, we helped them. But they didn’t need much help from me. They were fine, they were getting their – they were both government workers. One was – my mother was a teacher, my dad was – he worked for the court system in Sri Lanka. So they were getting their retirement money, pension. They were okay with that, and they had a house, and my sister, my sisters actually took care of them when they were old and when they fell sick. So my sisters were always around. So time to time I would send monetary help, but they – that’s not something they really needed or anything like that. They didn’t depend on me.
Bradley Ferrer 36:13
Right. And so you said, you still take trips back? So do you still feel a strong connection to Sri Lanka?
Lalith 36:23
Yeah, I do. I mean, that’s where I grew up. I mean, it’s – yeah, I still feel like home when I go back there. But when you start living here, you get used to certain luxuries and comforts and things like that, right? So you, you can – I like to visit, but I don’t think I like to live there anymore Because when you go there, you don’t get the same conveniences or comforts there. Sometimes driving on the road is also challenging, because the roads are narrow. And going from Kandy to Colombo, which is only 72 miles would take about half a day. So it’s – that’s – the roads are small, and there’s too much traffic on the road. So it’s a – it’s a stress, actually, once you get on the road, it’s very stressful. Therefore, you really don’t want to live there, go to work every day, in those conditions.
Bradley Ferrer 37:37
So even though you still have a connection, you also have a very strong American identity?
Lalith 37:45
I would say so yeah. We lived here for many years now.
Bradley Ferrer 37:53
And then I want to talk a little bit about the process of becoming a citizen. So what – just what was that like for you?
Lalith 38:04
That was probably like, the easiest process, I would say, compared to the other two stages. I mean, the first stage was to apply for employment visa and get it approved, right? So that process was done by the company, actually, company has to sponsor you, and they actually go through with the lawyers help they do the application and go through that. I didn’t have to do anything, but it took a long time. And then – so we have to renew that same visa a couple of times. And then when it’s time for us to apply for a green card, I had to do everything myself. But once again, I chose to go through the company lawyer because that process is also complicated, You don’t want to make a mistake, so you need to hire somebody who has experience in process – doing this, preparing this paperwork. So therefore, we – everybody, usually, they always go to immigration lawyer. So I went with my company immigration lawyer. So that took a long time, like I said, like four or five years for the whole thing to process. And then when it came, like after five years, you can actually apply for citizenship. We all decided that we are going to stay here, mostly because of the kids, because I don’t think they know anything about Sri Lanka because they were really small when they came here, right? They only know about America now. So we decided to say and apply for citizenship. So that – that was pretty easy, compared to the other two, I mean, so you – we did everything ourselves, we didn’t get any immigration lawyers or for that process. So the applications were available online, so we applied ourselves. So you had to do a medical. So the division [?] will notify, you have to do certain tests, blood tests and things like that. So you go to a doctor and get this then. And then there was a biometric test and police background report and things like that. Those things are also pretty easy, standard stuff. So, I would say that took about another six months, but it didn’t take much of our time, I would say. I mean, it’s not a difficult process. Yeah, I would say that was probably the easiest thing to do.
Bradley Ferrer 40:51
And then, do you feel like becoming a citizen changed how you felt about being in the U.S. or how people though of you here, or did it just stay the same?
Lalith 41:07
It’s the same, yeah. I don’t know exactly I follow your question, I didn’t feel a difference before and after I would say, if that’s what you’re asking.
Bradley 41:23
And then, I don’t know if you can answer this, but your daughters – you said they don’t know much about Sri Lanka, so do they – are they like very American then?
Lalith 41:38
Yeah, they are very much Americans now. If we ever decide to go back and live there – I mean now they are adults, they’re not gonna come with us, but if we decided to do that maybe five years before now, then they would be lost, I think if we decided to go back to Sri Lanka and try to live there. They wouldn’t speak the native language. You can get by with English most of the places, but if you don’t know or if you don’t speak [Sinhalese] you can’t really blend culturally in Sri Lanka, it’s hard to do that. So I don’t think they will feel they belong there.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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