Understanding Refugee Path Immigrants

In my quest for knowledge, I became confused about concepts such as the whiteness (in terms of race, class and education) of spaces such as the farmers’ market, appropriate definition of a food desert, and the possibility of control over the food consumed by groups such as  refugee path immigrants.  Refugee path immigrants (RPIs) are people who entered their new country through refugee routes (Adekunle et al. 2015). My confusion may have stemmed from my epistemological and ontological inclination that explanation is subjective and our perceptions shape our reality.

As a pluralist, I have come to understand that the only way we can understand a phenomenon is to use different approaches while taking a polyocular view at the prevailing landscape. As a team we have explored the consumption pattern of the three largest cultural groups in the Greater Toronto Area and have made significant impact to the food landscape of Canada as a multicultural society. Going forward, the ECVOntario team will explore the possibility of control over food consumed by vulnerable groups such as the refugee path immigrants in Canada.

Can refugee path immigrants control their food through access to culturally appropriate foods, community shared agriculture, urban gardening, attendance of farmers market, avoidance of processed food, etc.? We will answer this at the end of our new project …

Bamidele Adekunle, ECVOntario, SEDRD, University of Guelph, CANADA