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By fostering integration and adaptation through food, the Slow Food Migrant network supports people cultivating diversity in their new homes.
Migrants never arrive in a country empty-handed. They bring with them a wealth of experience—traditions, recipes, seeds of knowledge and potential—that enriches both the biological and cultural diversity of the country they make their home. Since 2014, the Slow Food Migrant Network has been promoting the traditional knowledge of migrants from more than 40 countries worldwide and supporting food professionals, including cooks, farmers, cheesemakers and beekeepers, who are cultivating diversity in their new homes.
In easing integration and adaptation through cultural and gastronomic exchange, the network serves as an example of the cultural and biological diversity that the Slow Food movement promotes.
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The Context
The history of food has always been linked to the movement of people.
People have been moving around the world since the dawn of humanity, and many of the foods that we now consider to be “indigenous” to a specific place are in fact only there because of the migration of women and men.
The factors that push groups of people to move are many, but these movements tend to be based on people’s desire to improve or radically change their living conditions. Two reasons in particular are playing an increasingly important role: climate change and conflicts over access to natural resources, like water and land.
According to World Bank figures, the number of “climate migrants” could reach 140 million by 2050, with 86 million from sub-Saharan Africa alone. Food therefore takes on a duel significance: shortages of food and water are one of the factors pushing populations to migrate, while food is also part of the cultural baggage that migrants bring with them in the form of seeds, recipes, and traditions, enriching the biocultural diversity of their new home.
Climate Change
Rising global temperatures seriously threaten the ability of millions of people around the world to access the resources they need to survive and these people are forced to make long journeys across continents in search of a better life.
The natural equilibrium that provides the basis for resilience in ecosystems started falling apart a few centuries ago as a result of human actions. Deforestation on a massive scale to make room for monocultures and intensive livestock farming, the uncontrolled spread of urban centers, and the industrialization of rural areas have all contributed to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the retention of heat close to the Earth, and the consequent rise in the average global temperature.
Within this context, which is further aggravated by rampant desertification, the available area of fertile land is being drastically reduced. According to a study by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), soil degradation, combined with climate change, will be one of the main causes behind the migration of millions of people by 2050.
Water, the most important source of life in the world, is the other resource at risk. A United Nations report on the world’s water showed that 3.6 billion people live in areas where water scarcity is a potential problem for at least a month every year, and this figure could reach 5.7 billion by 2050.
While continental waters are running short due to excessive exploitation of resources, sea levels are rising, making the survival of coastal populations even more tenuous. Due to global warming, over 3 million square kilometers of surface ice have been lost since 1979, and the level of seas and oceans around the world is rising dramatically (by 2100 this increase could range from 52 to 98 centimeters).
Conflicts
Armed conflict, often fought over control of the few remaining natural resources, is another human factor behind the exodus of millions of people from their homelands. Access to and management of land, water, and the raw materials used for food and energy production are being contested by those who have always lived with these resources and those who want to exploit them for economic gain.
According to data from the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), over 600 conflicts are currently being fought over land grabbing, 357 over the production of renewable energy, 270 over mining projects, 179 over fossil fuels, and 77 over control of fishing. The Pacific Institute’s figures, meanwhile, report 263 crises linked to the management of water resources between 2010 and the present.
The Environment, Conflict and Cooperation website, designed by Adelphi and funded by the German government, collects and updates data and information about all the conflicts in the world connected to climate change.
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What We Do
Forge Collaborations
The Slow Food Migrants Network is constantly working with other organizations and institutions to promote food-related campaigns and initatives that support migrant communities.
Coordinate Projects
Italy
1. Promoting diversity through food
In the second half of 2018, 80 migrants from over 30 countries gathered in Piedmont to start an Italian-language training program aimed at transforming their culinary heritage into applicable skills.
With the “Recipes for Dialogue: Food and Stories for Multiculturalism and Integration” project, Slow Food set out to connect first- and second-generation migrant communities with the Italian territory through food, providing them with concrete tools to help them become independent and create economies in the food sector.
Being able to start and run a food business, learning how to value one’s own story, and understanding biodiversity and the seasonality of local produce are essential elements for the integration of migrant enterprises. After the training, these migrants were encouraged to open up their homes and organize convivial events to share their own gastronomic traditions.
A cookbook published by Slow Food Editore will collect the stories of ten migrant communities and present their most significant dishes.
2. Supporting and promoting the role of migrants in the rural development of their native countries
Slow Food is committed to involving migrant communities in Italy, but also encouraging their direct engagement in their native countries from an international cooperation perspective.
According to Banca d’Italia statistics, in 2015 the total amount of remittances sent home by migrants residing in Italy was €5.9 billion, while in the same year the Italian government’s contribution to the Development Cooperation (AICS) amounted to €3 billion. This shows how migrant communities represent a crucial resource for promoting international cooperation and sustainable development processes in their home countries.
With the Dia.Me.Se. project, Slow Food is involving the Slow Migrants network in co-development projects, triggering a process of change in which migrants play an increasingly active role. Since 2017, Slow Food has been working on boosting rural entrepreneurship and youth employment in small-scale farming in rural areas in Senegal and Morocco by directing investments from diaspora associations in Italy.
Syria & Lebanon
Soup For Syria
Soupe au pistou, carrot soup, and gondi are just some of the many recipes collected in the Soup for Syria cookbook, a compilation of soup recipes provided by renowned international chefs like Alice Waters, Anthony Bourdain, and Yotam Ottolenghi to raise funds for Syrian refugees.
The idea came from Michel Moushabeck and Barbara Abdeni Massaad, a writer and photographer who also happens to be the founder of Slow Food Beirut and a Terra Madre network delegate.
One and a half million Syrian refugees have sought shelter in Lebanon, with half a million living close to Barbara’s home in Beirut. Struck by their living conditions, Barbara asked a number of celebrity chefs to contribute to a book in which soup represents much more than just a recipe, becoming also a symbol of comfort and conviviality.
The proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to help fund food relief for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Mauritania
Mbera I family food garden
In southeastern Mauritania, 60 kilometers from the border with Mali, lies the Mbera refugee camp, which hosts increasing numbers of Malians who have been forced to flee their country.
The camp does not offer much; Médecins Sans Frontières representatives talk about critical conditions, particularly regarding nutrition.
But next to his tent, Almahdi Alansari has planted a small food garden and begun to involve around 50 other camp residents in the traditional cultivation of typical crops from northern Mali. A supporter of Slow Food in Mali, Almahdi worked with katta pasta producers and coordinated the Presidium.
Almahdi has brought his experience to Mauritania, planting a small seed of hope that has helped to improve diets within the camp and to nurture human relationships between its inhabitants.
Organize Events
Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. Turin, Italy
Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is the biggest international event dedicated to food. Migration is a central theme, with the phenomenon explored in depth throughout the event and seen not as a distant problem but as the consequence of shortsighted policies and choices that affect all of us directly. Every 2 years, Terra Madre Salone del Gusto examines the issue through numerous forums, looking at topics closely linked to migration, like climate change, the exploitation of labor in agriculture, and international cooperation.
Visit the Terra Madre website for more information.
International Festival of Mediterranean Cuisine. Turin, Italy
There are many ways to interpret Mare Nostrum, “our sea,” the Mediterranean. One of the keys to understanding the region is food and the relationships between different yet similar gastronomic cultures. The Festival of Mediterranean Cuisine, organized every year by Slow Food and the Italo-French association Mediterranean: il nostro stile di vita, celebrates the sea in all its richness while promoting a new model of Mediterranean development so that cooperation and empathy for biocultural diversities in the region can become motors driving sustainable economies and new forms of acceptance.
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What You Can Do
Delve Deeper into Migrant Issues
Many groups weaponize migration for their own political ends, banking on our ignorance to scapegoat migrants for their shortcomings. The best way we can fight back is to explore these issues in depth, to arm ourselves with information when advocating for positive change.
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