| Summary/Abstract |
Sri Lankan Catholic migrants find Italy to be a destination that offers plenty of opportunities for material advancement. However, as employment for skilled workers is scarce, lack of formal education becomes a comparative advantage in the Italian migrant labor market. The multiple ways in which migrants to Italy display their economic success across Sri Lankan hometowns have encouraged young people to opt for migration over schooling, an unlikely phenomenon in a community proud of its tradition of excellence in education. This article suggests that the dream of moving to Italy and finding employment in low-paying jobs is not only a consequence of the material evidence provided by successful migrants. Ideological and ethical changes that precede the booming transnationalism have produced transformations at the level of the imagination that shape the dreams of local youths before they experience what migration can bring. Fieldwork research is based in the predominantly Catholic town of Wennappuwa – which has uncannily embraced the Sinhala moniker of Punchi Italia (Little Italy) – and explores the way in which migration has displaced traditional paths to economic prosperity and social mobility, leaving behind its reputation as Sri Lanka's Guru Gama (Teacher's Village).
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