Food hospitality and the negotiation of subjectivities through meals in the context of migration: case studies from Belgium

Abstract

This article focuses on the ways in which food enables undocumented migrants to find a place in the context of forced displacement, transit mobility and unstable settlement. The analysis is based on qualitative data collected within the framework of two research projects studying different forms of mobilization involving undocumented migrants in Belgium. In both fieldworks, hospitality dynamics were observed to develop through food. In one case, undocumented migrants hosted by Belgian citizens cooked meals to thank them for their hospitality as well as to eat something they like and to regain some power of action in their everyday life. In the other case, a group of undocumented migrant women living in a collective housing prepared "African food" for Belgian people to create spaces of intercultural encounter, to sensitize to the cause of undocumented people and to gain some money. Relying on the literature on food and hospitality crossed with migration (and gender) issues, and focusing on the relationship between hosts and guests, we aim at highlighting how migrants' subjectivities and agency are negotiated through food practices in different hospitality situations involving undocumented migrants and local people.