When entering a foreign place, can eating and digestion become a way of belonging?
As an immigrant and Asian migrant living in Europe, this research emerges from my own attempts to
understand how identity, belonging, and political pressure are experienced and managed. Through this project,
I seek to reflect on my own position while engaging with the experiences of other second- and thirdgeneration
migrants. Rather than aiming to define a stable identity, the research asks how feelings of belonging, exclusion, comfort, and fear are continuously shaped by social, political, and cultural conditions.
Food becomes a practical and relational way to explore these questions, allowing both personal reflection and
collective inquiry to unfold through shared everyday practices.
This research examines how food shapes everyday experiences of belonging within migrant communities in
European cities. It focuses on areas around major train stations in cities such as Antwerp and Rotterdam,
where migrant restaurants, grocery shops, and social life are often concentrated. Food is something everyone needs, but for migrants it can carry additional meanings. What people cook, eat, or share can express comfort,
memory, and a sense of home. At the same time, food practices can be shaped by social pressure, fear of
exclusion, or the desire to fit in. The project pays particular attention to second- and third-generation migrants who are born and raised in Europe but may still experience uncertainty around belonging. In some cases, these feelings are closely connected to broader political tensions and the increasing presence of right-wing or farright narratives in everyday life.
Through the making of short films and the organization of shared meals, as well as through conversations that
generate questions and responses, the project explores how food becomes a site where identity and visibility
are shaped and contested. By focusing on ordinary actions such as cooking, eating, and gathering together, the research investigates how social and political conditions are lived in everyday life, making complex issues around migration, fear, and belonging accessible through familiar experiences.
Results
-The core outcome of this research will be a series of short films or moving-image works developed from different
situations around food. Each film focuses on specific encounters, places, or practices, such as cooking, eating, or working in kitchens, and presents multiple perspectives rather than a single narrative.
- Participatory dinners organised within the academy. These dinners function both as research moments and artistic outputs. During these gatherings, students and guests are invited to share a meal and engage with questions such as what comfort food means to them, how they relate emotionally to certain foods, and how they perceive dishes that mix different culinary traditions. Through conversation and shared eating, these questions are explored collectively rather than through formal interviews.
-Workshops and collective sessions are organised as moments of reflection and exchange. These sessions create space to respond to the films, meals, and conversations, and to reflect on how food-related experiences shift across different cultural backgrounds and personal histories.
-The project may culminate in an installation or archive composed of films, recorded conversations, recipes, and written reflections. Rather than offering conclusions, this constellation of materials holds the research questions open as a shared field of inquiry.
