The Politics of Food and Hospitality: How Syrian Refugees in Belgium Create a Home in Hostile Environments

Vandevoordt, Robin

doi:10.1093/jrs/fex017

Cited by 45 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Eating fewer meals has emerged as one of the strategies among families suffering from financial setbacks [40,41]. In addition, the living conditions in the asylum reception centers may have an influence on meal structure [26,51]. Several studies have indicated that life at asylum reception centers is characterized by a lack of activities, loneliness, and social isolation [52,53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Feel like I’m Eating Rice 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week”: Dietary Diversity among Asylum Seekers Living in Norway

2019

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Food insecurity is widespread among asylum seekers resettled in Western countries. Limited information exists on the quality of food intake in this population. The aim of this study was to investigate dietary quality among asylum seekers living in Norwegian reception centers. This study has a cross-sectional research design. Dietary intake was assessed through a qualitative 24-hour dietary recall, and the dietary diversity score (DDS) was calculated. This study was conducted in eight Norwegian reception centers. A total of 205 adult asylum seekers (131 men and 74 women) participated in the study. The asylum seekers ate on average two meals per day, and one-third ate their first meal after noon. Mean (SD) DDS was 4.0 (1.6) and 2/3 had low dietary diversity, eating from fewer than five food groups. Women had a significantly higher mean DDS (4.5) than men (3.8) (β (95% CI): 0.47 (0.00, 0.95) and a higher consumption of vegetables and fruits. The longer the period of residence in Norway, the higher the DDS, β (95% CI): 0.01 (0.00, 0.02). The asylum seekers’ inadequate dietary intake reveals new forms of poverty and social exclusion in Europe. An inadequate dietary intake may increase the magnitude of difficulty involved in the settlement process and contribute to poorer health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Feel like I’m Eating Rice 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week”: Dietary Diversity among Asylum Seekers Living in Norway

2019

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Section: Recurring Displacements Homemaking and Refugee-refugee Solimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While homemaking has many dimensions and varies according to social and cultural contexts, the consumption of food can be an important aspect of it (Hage 2010;Hart et al 2018;Vandevoordt 2017). As mentioned by others, Syrians are widely noted for their culinary skills, and food has played an important social role in Syrian refugee communities (Hart et al 2018;Vandevoordt 2017). For example, for a number of Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan, improving their shelters means transforming them into 'homes' by creating spaces that are amenable to the culture of hospitality they enjoyed in Syria and which entails certain eating and hosting rituals (Hart et al 2018).…”

Section: Recurring Displacements Homemaking and Refugee-refugee Solimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, for a number of Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan, improving their shelters means transforming them into 'homes' by creating spaces that are amenable to the culture of hospitality they enjoyed in Syria and which entails certain eating and hosting rituals (Hart et al 2018). Similarly, sociologist Robin Vandervoordt notes that for Syrian refugees in a camp in Belgium, acting as hosts and providing Syrian cuisine to guests within these spaces demonstrates both a positive assertion of Syrian identity and a reversal of the power hierarchies that constrain their freedom of movement and self-expression within the camp (Vandevoordt 2017).…”

Section: Recurring Displacements Homemaking and Refugee-refugee Solimentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recurring Displacement, Homemaking and Solidarity amongst Syrian and Palestinian Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Gabiam

2021

Anthropology of the Middle East

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This article focusses on Al-Nur, a community centre in Istanbul, Turkey, that caters to Syrian and Palestinian Syrian refugees. It is based on five months of fieldwork conducted in the winter and spring of 2017 in Turkey that included participant observation as a volunteer English teacher at Al-Nur. A focus on the philosophy that guides Al-Nur’s functioning as a community centre as well as on the stories of displacement of some of its managers and volunteers sheds light on the importance of being able to (re)create home in exile. Such a focus also sheds light on how repeated displacement has shaped Palestinian Syrian refugees’ experiences of exile from Syria as well as their interactions with Syrian refugees.

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“…In Houthalen-Helchteren and Fraipont, dining events let residents of the centre introduce their local cuisine to both other residents and neighbours of the centre. These kinds of initiatives reverse the guest-host relationship in which asylum seekers are entangled because of their situation of dependence on the state's hospitality (Vandevoordt 2017), and enable asylum seekers to challenge the representations and power dynamics at play: "sharing a meal [...] breaks down barriers and [people] learn to discover each other around something [food]" (interview, centre director, Fraipont, 27 April 2018). Research highlights the role of food as not only an essential element for bodily existence, but also as a social language central tocollective and individual -identity, and as a crucial means to define, perpetuate and change social relationships and power dynamics, including in the context of forced migration (Monsutti 2010).…”

Section: On the Reception System And Its Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Refugee Reception Crisis : Polarized Opinions and Mobilizations

Rea

Mazzola

Martiniello

et al. 2019

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Les députés européens et leur rôle. Sociologie interprétative des pratiques parlementaires. Julien Navarro. 2009. The future of mutual recognition in criminal matters in the European Union/L'avenir de la reconnaissance mutuelle en matière pénale dans l'Union européenne. Ed. Gisèle Vernimmen-Van Tiggelen, Laura Surano and Anne Weyembergh. 2009. Sophie Heine, Une gauche contre l'Europe? Les critiques radicales et altermondialistes contre l'Union européenne Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) as part of the framework programme Belgian Research Action Through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN-be, contract nr. BR/175/A5/PUMOMIG). We are grateful to BELSPO for providing financial support to our research and dissemination activities, and for funding the publication of this book in open access. We wish to thank all research participants in Belgium and Europe, including migrants and non-migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented people, activists, volunteers, members of organizations, institutions and municipalities. We also thank the experts who accepted to review this manuscript and provided us with important insights to improve some of its sections.

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The Politics of Food and Hospitality: How Syrian Refugees in Belgium Create a Home in Hostile Environments

Cited by 45 publications

References 13 publications

“I Feel like I’m Eating Rice 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week”: Dietary Diversity among Asylum Seekers Living in Norway

“I Feel like I’m Eating Rice 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week”: Dietary Diversity among Asylum Seekers Living in Norway

Recurring Displacement, Homemaking and Solidarity amongst Syrian and Palestinian Syrian Refugees in Turkey

The Refugee Reception Crisis : Polarized Opinions and Mobilizations

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