Stacy Lockerbie

‘Nobody Loves You as Much as Rice’ Stacy Lockerbie ABSTRACT: Canada struggles to bolster immigration, especially in the Maritime Provinces that exist outside the current flow of migration to central or western Canada. Policy aimed at resolving this issue prioritizes practical and economic factors while ignoring the more subtle and personal facets of the decision to migrate. In this article, policy is coupled with human experience to inform new directions in research and implemen- tation. The landscape of food and eating is the centre point of my analysis because shops and restaurants catering to Asian foods play important roles in constructing an environment favourable to immigration. Indeed, my research participants used food as a means of expressing notions of well-being and feelings of ‘home’ in a new setting. With a focus on the foodscapes in Halifax, Nova Scotia this article explores the role of food in how Vietnamese immigrants experience life in the Canadian Maritimes. KEYWORDS: Canadian Maritimes, ethnographic humanism, foodscapes, immigration policy, Vietnamese immigrants Introduction as Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, where larger ethnic communities reside. Policy A great deal of media attention has focused makers have redirected attention to creating on the need to attract immigrants to Canada’s more jobs, lowering the admission fee and Maritime Provinces. Demographic studies advertising the Maritimes globally as an at- indicate that birth rates have dropped and tractive place to migrate. This strategy sim- the Canadian population is on the decline, plifies the migration experience while therefore immigration is necessary to offset ignoring a range of factors that extend be- the aging population. Meyer Burstein, the yond purely economic motives. It is true that cofounder of Metropolis Canada (a policy- the lack of good employment is an impedi- driven organisation dealing with migration ment to retaining immigrants, but this focus and multicultural issues) referred to Cana- is too narrow; it ignores the everyday experi- dian immigration policy as a ‘remarkable ex- ences. Beyond practical motivations, people periment’ in need of a makeover (Burstein are guided by more complex and intuitive 2005). By this he insinuates that current pol- reasons when deciding where to live. The icy haphazardly accepts immigrants and al- question left unasked is, quite simply, how ternatively suggests that policy should do immigrants feel about their life in a new concentrate on attracting those who are setting? In this article, I employ the human- highly skilled. He is also referring to the con- centred principles of ethnography to reveal centration of immigrants outside of the Mari- these complexities. More specifically, I focus times. Of the few immigrants who do come on food as a means to explore the immigra- to Atlantic Canada, far fewer actually remain tion experience in Halifax, the largest of all in the region for long periods of time, with Maritime cities, and bring attention to the many relocating to larger city centres such voices of Vietnamese immigrants beyond the Anthropology in Action, 14, 1 & 2 (2007): 41–51 © Berghahn Books and the Association for Anthropology in Action doi:10.3167/aia.2007.14010205 AiA Stacy Lockerbie imagination and speculation of policy consumption and purchase have profound makers. influence on the way Vietnamese immigrants ‘It is almost too obvious to dwell on’ experience life in the Canadian Maritimes (Mintz 1986:3) but food preferences and prac- and subsequently carry some weight in the tices, cross-culturally, are central to both self- decision to remain in the region or move to and community definition. The movement of larger city centres. people across borders into new arenas of food topography has the potential to threaten notions of identity and well-being. In this article, the Migration Context landscape of food and eating in Halifax will be examined to capture both the symbolic and real spaces where consumption, identity and power Up until the 1990s, a large portion of the merge for Vietnamese immigrants. A specific fo- Vietnamese immigrating to Canada came as cus will be on accumulated knowledge, emphasiz- refugees and settled in central Canada most ing the role of networks and communities to share often Toronto and Montreal, followed by this learning with special attention to the link cities in Southern Ontario including London, between food choice and feelings of health and Kitchener, Ottawa, Hamilton and Windsor well-being. This research borrows from geography (Pfeifer 2000). Over the past decade, the the notion of a mental map. This includes the stream of refugees has dwindled and the ma- spaces that are conceptually meaningful for jority of Vietnamese immigrants to Canada recent immigrants by outlining a familiarity are ‘family-class immigrants’, which means with suitable or preferred spaces and places that they are sponsored by family members of food and eating, which grows as immi- who immigrated previously. Not surpris- grants’ knowledge of the city increases and ingly, given the nature of recent immigration social networks expand. patterns, Canadian census statistics indicate Building upon Bell and Valentines’ (1997) that immigrants from Vietnam continue to focus on the geography of food consumption, concentrate in the same areas, leaving the this article also examines the role of food in Atlantic Canadian provinces in deficit (Ar- creating identities based on place (Anderson thur 1999; Pfeifer 2000). It should be noted, 1983). Restaurants, grocery stores and other however, that secondary migration is not the various places of food purchase and con- only avenue used by Vietnamese people en- sumption are significant locations for iden- ter to Canada; the pull factors that attract tity formation both etically as Asian, or Vietnamese people to live amongst family in emically as distinctly Vietnamese. Based on Quebec and Southern Ontario are equally these spatial dimensions, I incorporate a matched with factors that steer immigrants multisited approach to map the migration away from Atlantic Canada. The Maritime foodscape of Vietnamese immigrants in Hali- Provinces face a much larger immigration fax, Nova Scotia. Immigrants, like the exam- problem than policy makers are prepared to ple given by Bell and Valentine of Celiacs, deal with. Historically, Canadian immigra- are among those who have to carefully map tion had racist overtones discouraging those out where they eat. For Celiacs the impor- from Asia or Africa to move to Canada be- tance of space and place are heightened because it was believed that they could not be cause of serious gluten allergies (Bell and assimilated into Canadian society. While the Valentine 1997). I contend that this closely rest of Canada moves towards embracing a parallels the experience of a new immigrant larger and more multicultural sense of iden- seeking to eat in specific ways. Spaces of food tity, it seems that in the Maritimes, people 42 ‘Nobody Loves You as Much as Rice’ AiA are still separated into ‘us’ and ‘others’, ishment (Bourdieu 1984; Lupton 1996; Bell ‘mainstream citizens’ and ‘immigrants’ or and Valentine 1997; Garbaccia 1998; Mintz ‘whites’ and ‘visible minorities’ (Arthur 1999). Cultural constructions favor particular 1999). In this framework, Asian immigrants foods and reject others, despite an environ- become a homogenous group of ‘others’ and ment supporting a variety of possible the life satisfaction and sense of belonging choices. Societies create elaborate systems of of immigrants from this region are accord- acquiring food and notions of cuisine, lend- ingly low. ing themselves to complex conceptions of According to Canadian census, the popu- health and well-being, in addition to con- lation of Halifax Regional Municipality was structing and challenging identities based on 350,111 in 2001, and of these documented ethnicity, social class and nationalism. Food persons, 730 are Vietnamese. These numbers solidifies social relationships, helps to cele- include periphery regions like Dartmouth, brate special events, commemorates history Bedford and Spryfield, therefore even fewer and reveals relationships of power. Vietnamese persons are visible in Halifax. Immigrants, according to post-colonial lit- This small population coupled with a climate erature, do not lose their cultural traditions heavily influenced by its location near the and blindly assimilate but rather develop Atlantic coast keeps Halifax outside the path continually and mutually with their host cul- of immigration from Vietnam. Temperatures ture (Ashcroft et al. 1995; Bhabha 1995; are consistently below five degrees Celsius Braithwaite 1995). What happens when these in the winter and usually no higher than ideas about food move across borders, resitu- twenty-eight degrees in the summer months. ating themselves in new settings? Recent lit- Miedema and Tastsogolou (2000) note an- erature suggests that migrants blend ideas other factor influencing the retention of im- and practices to create a sort of ‘hybrid diet’ migrants. She spoke to forty immigrant based on a combination of new foods and women in the Maritime region, all of whom those to which they are accustomed (Reid emphasized the role of community involve- 1986; Ashcroft et al. 1995; Garbaccia 1998; ment, both in ‘ethnic’ or ‘multicultural’ and Pilcher 2002). However, immigrants need to in ‘mainstream’ community activities. Such negotiate new identities based on these involvement, with varied levels of

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