Background
Sriskandarajah was born in Sri Lanka, the son of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Sriskandarajah was born in Sri Lanka, the son of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Sriskandarajah was educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, New South Wales, graduating in 1993. Sriskandarajah then attended the University of Sydney, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science in 1998.
He was Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, a large non-governmental organization devoted to Commonwealth affairs based in London. He was the first non-British and youngest person to head this 140-year-old organisation. He migrated to Australia at a young age.
He was the school captain.
During 1995 and 1996, he resided at Welsey College, a residential college within, but separate from, the university. After winning a Rhodes scholarship in 1998, Sriskandarajah then matriculated to the Magdalen College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, to read for an Master of Philisophy and then a Doctorate.Phil.
Sriskandarajah is Australia"s first Asian Rhodes scholar. Before being appointed to the Royal College of Surgeons, he was Deputy Director of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research.
He is a well-known researcher and commentator on migration issues.
He has written books and reports on several migration-related topics, including on British emigration. He often appears in the United Kingdom media taking a liberal position on immigration issues and writes often in the Financial Times and The Guardian newspaper. In March 2009, the Royal Commonwealth Society published a poll on British attitudes to Commonwealth, which attracted media coverage in the United Kingdom and abroad.
Sriskandarajah had a piece in The Guardian on the poll findings.
In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
