Refugees’ Navigating Social and Symbolic Boundaries Through Food Practices

Food is so strongly tied to culture and identity and undeniably establishes symbolic boundaries between groups. Syrian food is a relatively a new research topic that is attracting more attention in recent years as part of the growing interest in the refugee crisis since 2015, when refugees, especially Syrians, started to cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrived in Europe. This qualitative study is conducted to explore, how Syrian refugees draw/bridge boundaries through food practices, from an insider position who understands Syrian culture and is able to interpret refugees’ responses meaningfully. This research is done based on twenty in-depth interviews with Syrian refugees from mixed socioeconomic, cultural backgrounds whose ages range between 24 and 40 years old. All respondents have been living in the Netherlands since 2015. All interviews took place between December 2019 and March 2020 in various cities in the Netherlands. This study revolves around the cultural identity of Syrian refugees by drawing a timeline from the moment they arrived in the Netherlands until the date of the interview. In the conclusion, results show that there is an experienced difference between home and the host country that, from the very beginning, causes boundary drawing and crystallizes the lines of cultural boundaries. Maintaining boundaries with the Dutch natives and sustaining a sense of home are simultaneously established through food that enables the maintenance of an embodied sense of comfort. The construction of cultural identity through food has many dimensions that reach further than everyday activities. It has triggered interest in researching the social phenomena of food and culture. This is not only related to the food itself (taste, ingredients) but also the practices surrounding food consumption (cultural differences regarding hospitality, the eating, ritual, ethnic restaurants, religious values; moral and gender roles). Stereotypes and role expectations play a large role here as well. They clearly show that people are often simply unsure how people from another group may respond. Then, there's also the double-edged sword of food that attaches refugee migrants to their country of origin, while it establishes a platform to share identity and communicate with people. The warm ties to food and a place of belonging can also create barriers against the host country, where life is felt to be unstable and cultural differences are constantly experienced. This catches Syrian refugees between the hammer of change and the anvil of resistance/acceptance. Hence, cultural change is inevitable and identities are not only constructed, they are reconstructed and resettled based on new mechanisms of acculturation. 6 On the other hand, the bridging-potential food has, is relatively high, because people seem more inclined to 'taste' unfamiliar food than they want to meet or be around unfamiliar people. The practicality of communication and boundary crossing demonstrate the pleasure of breaking bread with Dutch people, which is critically seen as a positive reinforcement when food creates connection this way and helps smooth out difficulties of communication in a pleasurable way.