A Taste of Home: The Migrant Street Food Another Type of Domesticity

Author : Camilo Cerro

Abstract :In 2024, the United Nations estimates that there are 281 million migrants worldwide, while some people move in search of work or better economic opportunities and education, others do so due to conflict, violence, disaster, and for the last couple of years climate change. In most cases, today’s migrant is following the footsteps of others that came before, generations of people stuck between two worlds that understand that some links to their place of origin are needed to adapt and survive. The strongest of this links is food. And that is because due to its central role in our lives, food can provide insights into the complex experience of migration. For migrant communities, food is more than sustenance. To cope with the dislocation and disorientation that the displacement of migration produces, the migrant will recognize a sense of domesticity around food, linking cooking and other food-related practices to memory, to home. Street food has always been a low-capital entry into economic self-sufficiency for new migrants. The article will focus on the evolution of street food in New York City as an entry vehicle for migrant belonging and agency, while providing a taste of the city’s rich diversity

Keywords :Displacement, Diversity, Domesticity, Street Food, Migration

Conference Name :International Conference on Creative Arts and Design (ICOCAD - 25)

Conference Place Colombo, Sri Lanka

Conference Date 30th Jun 2025