2019 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(1) interviewees were free to interpret equality as they so pleased. It may very well be that feeling equal does not capture the affective properties of belonging that lay beyond rights entitlements, but it does provide a measure of insight into whether or not the acquisition of citizenship after a prolonged period of statelessness necessarily entails belonging. Just over half of all survey respondents have indicated that the acquisition of citizenship has been of benefit, with a near equal representation of women and men indicating that this was so. 124 Further, the majority of respondents who indicated that citizenship has been of benefit are from urban locales. Conversely, the majority of respondents who saw citizenship as bringing with it no benefit are from rural locales. 125 It should be noted that half of the women from Nanu Oya, and all women from Dickoya deem the acquisition of citizenship to be of no benefit. 126 The majority of interviewees (19/30) see no benefit from the 2003 grant of citizenship. More than half of all women and men are of this opinion (eight women and 11 men), with men slightly overrepresented. The leading reason provided for this sentiment is some variation of the general belief that nothing has changed, that nothing has been provided by the government in the wake of the grant of citizenship, that interviewees are not aware of any benefits and that the government continues to neglect this community. For instance, Santos, a 51-yearold man from Nanu Oya, gave the following response when asked if he or his community had benefitted from the 2003 grant of citizenship: ‘Things now are exactly like they were 100 years before. Still it is the same, nothing has changed. There are no benefits with citizenship’. 127 Of the remaining 11 interviewees, five believed the grant of citizenship to be of partial benefit only, and government neglect was provided as reason for such ambivalence. The remaining six interviewees explicitly stated that the grant of citizenship was of benefit, with each interviewee providing a different reason for this response. 128 Slightly more than half of all survey respondents indicated that the Up-Country Tamil community has indeed achieved equality with the majority population in wake of the 2003 grant of citizenship, with women and men equally represented. 129 Like the above findings, the majority of respondents who perceive equality to have been achieved are from urban locales. Conversely, and although women and men are again equally represented, the majority of those respondents who do not perceive equality to have been achieved are from rural locales, with over half of all respondents from Passara and Dickoya having indicated this. 130 124 125 126 127 128 Figure 9. Figure 10. Figure 10. Interview with Santos (Patrick Balazo, 10 August 2016). The six reasons provided for why the grant of citizenship is deemed to have been of benefit are as follows: with citizenship, there is now peace between all communities; the overall standard of living has improved despite low levels of remuneration for plantation labour; the government has increased funding to Up-Country Tamil communities; citizenship enables one to do anything they please; because of citizenship Up-Country Tamil people now receive respect when in town; citizenship has made all Sri Lankans equal. 129 Figure 11. 130 Figure 12. 26