Kakuma is a town in the Northwestern part of Kenya that hosts the Kakuma Refugee
Camp. The camp has been in existence since 1992 and currently hosts over
101,000 refugees who have fled wars in neighboring countries such as Sudan,
Somalia and Ethiopia (UNHCR, 2013). There are few cases of Ugandans, Burundians
and Congolese at the camp, but their numbers are not as high. Most refugees
eventually migrate to other countries (mostly developed countries), and face
several challenges as they try and adjust into their new environment. I want to
share some of these challenges with you in the sections below.
I had the chance of interacting with individuals who immigrated to Canada
on refugee status, some formerly at Kakuma Camp while others were generally
from different East African countries. All these individuals shared one thing
in common- they were brought up consuming fresh organic fruits, vegetables,
animal products and meat linked to their culture. They shared with me their
experiences on the accessibility of culturally appropriate foods in Canada and
how these experiences have influenced their lifestyle.
A number of these immigrants originally came from communities that
prepare foods with lots of different spices and a variety of organic vegetables
which are hard to obtain, especially in a small city like Guelph; therefore commuting to a bigger city such as Toronto is often the
easier way to obtain these commodities. The commute is one that takes up time
that would have been invested in studies or work (for those employed) and this compromises
each person’s priorities. None of the individuals I talked to found it
necessary to lose out on making ‘an extra buck’ at their workplace or forgo
school for the purpose of obtaining ethnic foods.
Remittance is another factor that influences these individual’s decisions
to travel to the Greater Toronto Area or other culturally diverse cities to
purchase cultural foods products. There is generally a sense of obligation for
refugee immigrants to send money back to their family members besides fending
for their own livelihoods here in Canada; this affects their mobility to these
big cities where they can access ethnic foods from their culture.
Many refugee immigrants initially receive funding from the government to
help them settle down, but after some time the benefits decline and they have
to search for alternative sources of income. Often times, they lack adequate
income and this influences the types of foods they purchase and the grocery
stores from which they buy these foods. Since most refugee immigrants closely
manage their wallet sizes, they end up settling for basic foods sold in
supermarkets such as rice, pasta, beans and eggs thus leading to acculturation,
with an affinity for relatively unhealthy processed foods with longer shelf
lives.
Through the course of my discussion with some of these individuals, they
expressed their health concerns with the foods available in Canada. They are
aware of how cheap and readily available fast foods are but their greater
concern lies within the consequences of consuming such foods and how it would
affect their personal health and wellness. As they try to avoid developing
chronic diseases and obesity by reducing consumption of unhealthy foods, they
also put themselves at risk of nutrition deficiency because the vegetable
portion of their diet is often missing. Their reasons for not buying vegetables
are linked to the prices of these items and the lack of knowledge on what some
of the vegetables in the stores are, therefore opting to stick to food items with
which they were familiar.
Nostalgic memories of how different dishes are prepared in their original
home came up during our discussions, and this brought about cravings for these
cultural foods. I learned that most of these individuals attend potlucks hosted
by an individual from an East African community at least once every four months.
The attendees, who recognize the rarity of these vegetables and condiments, are
usually assigned the task of preparing certain types of food in order to
diversify the dishes on the table during the event. The potluck has been a
useful way of helping every person overcome their homesickness as well as
helping them preserve their cultural heritage in their new country and
environment.
Reference:
United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (2013). 2013
UNHCR country operations profile – Kenya. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483a16.html
Angela Nyawira Kabii - URA
ECVOntario, SEDRD, University of Guelph