Integration, radicalization, inclusion, exclusion, and discrimination—we think we understand the relationships between migrants and societies, but in many ways, we do not. Much research focuses either on migrants' experiences or on societal perceptions, yet the connections between them remain hidden and largely unexplored.
FOODCIRCUITS examines the crucial but often overlooked relations between migrants and the societies of which they form part. To explore these connections, the project focuses on specific fruits and vegetables and all the people who come in contact with them, including migrant farmworkers, farmers, transportation and supply chain workers, as well as consumers and beyond. The project, thereby, focuses on the study of food production, transportation and consumption. The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily exposed how societies depend on migrant food laborers, as border closures disrupted food supply chains, thereby revealing the fact that migrant peoples’ essential roles in feeding many societies is typically invisibilized. These workers frequently face precarious conditions while consumers tend not to acknowledge their contributions in everyday food consumption. By examining the circulation of fruit and vegetables—German asparagus, Spanish oranges, and California strawberries—this project uncovers the embodied experiences of migrant farmworkers, supply chain workers, and consumers, not only examining the multiple ways in which all of these groups are connected and related, but also analyzing the ways in which these connections become hidden.
By tracing what we conceptualize as food circuits, we analyze labor conditions, transportation networks, and consumer practices, comparing migration patterns and food systems across three contexts: Germany-Austria-Romania, Spain-Morocco/Ecuador, and California-Mexico. This approach offers a new way of understanding the deep but obscured connections between migrants and the societies of which they form part—through the beauty, brutality, and necessity of food.
