Immigrant’s Way of Creating a Piece of Home in Abroad: Foodways, Religion, Gender and Norms.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VI, June 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Immigrant’s Way of Creating a Piece of Home in Abroad: Foodways, Religion, Gender and Norms.

Muhammad Ilias
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh

Introduction
“Food is who we are in a deepest sense, and not because it is transformed into blood and bone. Our personal gastronomic traditions- what we eat, the foods, and foodways we associate with the rituals of childhood, marriage and parenthood, moments around the table, celebrations- are critical component of our identities. To recall them in desperate circumstances is to reinforce a sense of self and to assist us in our struggle to preserve it.”
This above statement is the reflection of the situation the author had went through. It also explains the psychological ways dealing with the struggles in the concentration camp of Terezin. The tiny hope they had about the future. Seeking of satisfaction and happiness in that ghetto life through deepest involvement into something that serves the need to mind, that connects people with their most familiar circumstances, which are more or less a symbol of one’s self and identity. There are many aspects highlighted in the statement. It said that food is not merely what we are eating and hence our body is transforming into something good. Rather it’s beyond that. Food is, almost similar to the definition of culture, what we are.
Culture is something we build in one environment, but it also takes us into a new situation of life or into new living spaces. The cuisine and food culture are no different from other cultural expressions in that case. It can be re-created at a new location or in a new situation and environment as a potable value. Sources of this are how we transfer our food culture through life in our childhood, from the time we leave home, to the situation when we form a new family, and to the old age. As people migrate, they come into contact with cultures that are new and different. The alienation from the usual dietary practices and the challenge of finding new foods and eating ways in the new environment (host country / region) becomes central to the integration process. However, this assimilation does not by any means overshadow the complexity of multiple identities within each individual and the whole family.

Read More