Immigrants experience food insecurity and wider health disparities in comparison to broader populations in Canada. According to the Canadian Income Survey (2021), one in four (26%) of families in which the major income earner is a recent immigrant (in the last ten years) reported being food insecure (Stats Canada, 2023). Immigrants hold a unique set of experiences that impact their food insecurity, which is related to their shift in physical environment but also their ability to assimilate or secure a stable lifestyle and livelihood in the host country. When newcomers come to Canada, many experience negative health outcomes due to a range of social and economic barriers and challenges in the Canadian context (Fennely, 2007; Sanou et al., 2013). The ease of which they are able to integrate into Canadian society depends on their economic stability, their ability to secure housing and appropriate health care, as well as their ability to assimilate and adapt culturally within the host country (Che 2009; Koc et al., 2015; Kirkpatrick and Tarasuk, 2007).
This research responds to heightened concerns over growing food insecurity and widening health disparities among immigrant populations in Canada, particularly emphasizing the challenges faced in outlying rural and suburban areas of gateway cities (Edge, et al., 2024). An increasing number of immigrants are settling outside of Canada’s major urban centers: Guelph-Wellington region has seen an increase of 35.7% in immigrant settlement between the 2011-2016 and the 2016-2021 census (Guelph-Wellington Local Immigration Partnership, 2022). According to the 2021 Census, 23.8% of the population of the city of Guelph are foreign-born immigrants, and 1.9%. are non-permanent residents; for the Wellington County, 18.8% of the population are foreign-born immigrants and 1.3% are non-permanent residents. These outlying urban regions in Canada are identified as highly vulnerable due to the clustering of racialized, immigrant, and low-income populations who tend to experience higher socio-economic and environmental inequities including limited access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food, limited mobility options, challenges in securing employment, and a scarcity of community resources that support healthy living (Zhuang et al., 2021).
Centered within the Guelph-Wellington region, this project explores and illuminate the role and importance of immigrant foodways with the aim of enabling more supportive and equitable infrastructure to tackle food access and related health and socioeconomic inequities amongst immigrants in this region. A “foodway” encompasses the traditional activities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors associated with food in one’s daily life (Koc & Welsh, 2001). Immigrant foodways include “the customs of food production, preservation, preparation, presentation, gathering, marketing (both buying and selling) of local immigrant communities (Darnton, 2012). The prominence and stability of Immigrant foodways signal the degree to which migrant population’s food needs are being met and fundamentally, the degree to which their food access is secure within a given geography (Cachelin et al., 2019; Dubowitz et al., 2007; Koc et al., 2015; Qadeer et al., 2010). For example, ethic retail, community gardens and kitchens, as well as land and infrastructure for developing immigrant foodways are important avenues for newcomers to share culinary and cultural traditions, exchange important information that supports their settlement, establish their livelihoods, and cultivate a sense of belonging (Bégin & Sharma, 2018; Elsharkawy, 2024). Currently, much of the research on immigrant food security the region emphasizes the need for more culturally attuned charitable food programs (see, for example, Ramsahoi et al., 2022) or food affordability in Guelph-Wellington more generally (Reeve, 2019). Little research currently sheds little light on the established and existing immigrant foodways in the region or how they could be bolstered or further developed to ensure greater immigrant food security. Further, very little emphasis of immigrant food needs or infrastructure has been included in regional government food system policy or regional reports on immigrant well-being (see Guelph-Wellington Food Security Action Plan, 2022; Nadkarni, 2024).
This research responds to heightened concerns over growing food insecurity and widening health disparities among immigrant populations in Canada, particularly emphasizing the challenges faced in outlying rural and suburban areas of gateway cities (Edge, et al., 2024). An increasing number of immigrants are settling outside of Canada’s major urban centers: Guelph-Wellington region has seen an increase of 35.7% in immigrant settlement between the 2011-2016 and the 2016-2021 census (Guelph-Wellington Local Immigration Partnership, 2022). According to the 2021 Census, 23.8% of the population of the city of Guelph are foreign-born immigrants, and 1.9%. are non-permanent residents; for the Wellington County, 18.8% of the population are foreign-born immigrants and 1.3% are non-permanent residents. These outlying urban regions in Canada are identified as highly vulnerable due to the clustering of racialized, immigrant, and low-income populations who tend to experience higher socio-economic and environmental inequities including limited access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food, limited mobility options, challenges in securing employment, and a scarcity of community resources that support healthy living (Zhuang et al., 2021).
Centered within the Guelph-Wellington region, this project explores and illuminate the role and importance of immigrant foodways with the aim of enabling more supportive and equitable infrastructure to tackle food access and related health and socioeconomic inequities amongst immigrants in this region. A “foodway” encompasses the traditional activities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors associated with food in one’s daily life (Koc & Welsh, 2001). Immigrant foodways include “the customs of food production, preservation, preparation, presentation, gathering, marketing (both buying and selling) of local immigrant communities (Darnton, 2012). The prominence and stability of Immigrant foodways signal the degree to which migrant population’s food needs are being met and fundamentally, the degree to which their food access is secure within a given geography (Cachelin et al., 2019; Dubowitz et al., 2007; Koc et al., 2015; Qadeer et al., 2010). For example, ethic retail, community gardens and kitchens, as well as land and infrastructure for developing immigrant foodways are important avenues for newcomers to share culinary and cultural traditions, exchange important information that supports their settlement, establish their livelihoods, and cultivate a sense of belonging (Bégin & Sharma, 2018; Elsharkawy, 2024). Currently, much of the research on immigrant food security the region emphasizes the need for more culturally attuned charitable food programs (see, for example, Ramsahoi et al., 2022) or food affordability in Guelph-Wellington more generally (Reeve, 2019). Little research currently sheds little light on the established and existing immigrant foodways in the region or how they could be bolstered or further developed to ensure greater immigrant food security. Further, very little emphasis of immigrant food needs or infrastructure has been included in regional government food system policy or regional reports on immigrant well-being (see Guelph-Wellington Food Security Action Plan, 2022; Nadkarni, 2024).