British Tamil
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| London | |
| Languages | |
| British English · Tamil language | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism · Christianity · Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tamil people · British Asian |
British Tamils (Tamil: பிரித்தானியத் தமிழர், [pirittāṉiyat tamiḻar]) are British people of Tamil origin. The term is used to denote people who have their homeland in Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
However, "Tamil" is not one of the predefined tick-box answers for the ethnicity question on the UK Census. The tick-box options under the "Asian" category include "Indian", "Pakistani" and "Bangladeshi", but respondents can also tick an "Any other Asian" box and write in their own answer.
In the 2011 Census, the number of respondents writing in "Tamil" was 24,930 in England, 128 in Wales, 99 in Scotland and 11 in Northern Ireland. The number of people in England and Wales that speak Tamil as their main language was recorded as 100,689.
In 2008, community estimates suggested that 150,000 Tamils lived in the UK, with a 2006 Human Rights Watch report putting the number of Sri Lankan Tamils in the UK at 110,000. A 2009 article in the FT Magazine put the figure at up to 200,000.
Immigration of significant numbers of Tamils to the United Kingdom (UK) started with labour migrants in the 1940s. These were joined by students moving to the UK for education in the 1970s, and by refugees fleeing the Sri Lankan Civil War in the 1980s and 1990s.
The UK has always had a strong, albeit small, population of Sri Lankan Tamils deriving from colonial era immigration between Sri Lanka and the UK, but a surge in emigration from Sri Lanka took place after 1983, as the civil war caused living conditions deteriorate and placed many inhabitants in danger. It is now estimated that the current population of British Sri Lankan Tamils numbers around 100,000 to 200,000.
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