Tasting and Telling: Stories of Migrants
A community's local food and migration histories can be incredibly rich and varied, reflecting the social, cultural, and economic aspects of both the origin and the destination countries. These narratives frequently shed light on the ways in which food connects people to their roots while also facilitating their adaptation to and integration into their new environment.
The relationship between local cuisine and migrant stories can be outlined through cultural connection, nostalgia and comfort, culinary adaptation, community building, documenting migration stories and facilitating integration of migrants.
Within the framework of Culinary: Ode to Diversity Project, European Migrant Platform (EMP) organised a local workshop with the participation of newcomer and settled migrants from Turkish and Ukranian communities in Hasselt, Belgium, on 24th June 2023. This workshop also reflected how local foods of migrants and their migration stories are related to each other and outlining the cultural connection to their roots and bridging their lives to the host countries.
The local workshop began with the oral presentation of the Culinary Project to the audiences by highlighting the aim, objectives, activities and partners of the project. Following to this, everyone introduced herself/himself. The Project, adopting a creative way of utilising food culture and theatre to foster integration, drew attention from participants. Then, each participant introduced themselves to the general public.
The workshop proved that food has a power of connecting people. During the workshop which took place at the Japanese Garden of Hasselt, homemade food and cold beverages were prepared and served by EMP. There are salty, sour, hot and sweet foods on the table ready to be eaten by the guests. Participants were told to think a special moment in their history which was related to a kind of food whether salty, sour, hot or sweet; according to this memory they were invited to select a food from the table and to share this memory to the public. Till this event, all participants were hesitating or speaking in a formal way. But with the introduction of the activity related to food, each participant reflected in a warm atmosphere their stories via using a taste of food from their culture related to their migration or integration stories.
Newcomers mostly from Ukranian community in Belgium were speaking about their past memories while relatively settled migrants from Turkish community touched upon mostly their integration stories. Food and drinks, around a table, created this warm atmosphere which enabled sharing and telling stories and creating empathy among all participants. Personal stories, migration paths and integration experiences were the main dishes served in this Culinary Project event when the food was the main character.
Under this atmosphere and with the connecting power of a dinner table, many narratives of migrants’ stories were collected. For example, a Turkish woman described her relationship with the host country (Belgium) as the piece of food that she’s eating, cheese stuffed bread.
The bread represents Belgium and the cheese inside is herself. In her story the hosting country has embraced and supported her, as the bread does with the cheese. The path was not easy, but after she integrated to host society and she felt as she and her new country as a one united thing.
Another Turkish woman described the dessert at the table. It was a Turkish pudding, made with some Belgian biscuits. This dessert represents the beauty of the integration of Turkish and Belgian taste, as her story of integration in the Belgian territory: she both has Turkish and Belgian sides as a good taste of mixture.
A Ukrainian man, who was a newcomer living less than a year in Belgium, talked about his story of migration. It was not his choice to live in another country. He sometimes feels like a burden for Belgium since he is not working. He thinks preparing and serving food as a way to show appreciation to the hosting country and tries to make some cultural foods for her neighbours and friends from the host country. A Ukrainian woman, living temporarily in a Belgian family, described how it is important for her to prepare Ukrainian dishes for the family that welcomed her, to show appreciation and gratefulness. And she added that she finds cooking as a therapy and connection with people.
Another Ukrainian woman looking at the big table laden with food remembered how she and her family back in Ukraine were used to meet every Sunday, with all kinds of food prepared for everyone. They were used to welcome guests with celebrations in which food was the best way to show how much they were happy.
A Turkish boy explains how, when he first came to Belgium, he didn’t like sparkling iced tea, it wasn’t something present in his home country and it was very weird for him. After some years he started to like this beverage and now is something he loves. This represents for him integration, how he integrated himself in the new country.
The local workshop was an important opportunity for migrants to share their stories and experiences and for newcomers to receive support and assistance from other migrants already settled in the territory.
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