“Okus doma”: integracija azilanata protkana transnacionalnim procesima i promicanjem kulinarskih tradicija
“Taste of Home”: Integration of Asylees Intertwined with Transnational Processes and the Promotion of Culinary Traditions

Summary/Abstract: Integration of immigrants in the EU member states is one of the key social issues today. The aim of this paper is to show on the Taste of Home collective case study the attempts at socio-economic, cultural and interactive integration of refugees and seekers of international protection into Croatian society and how successful (or not) they are. The research is based on ethnological and cultural-anthropological qualitative methodology: on interviews with asylees and asylum seekers, on participant observation in cooking workshops and at food presentations and on media discourse analysis. In addition to integration process that proved exceptionally important for asylees and asylum seekers, the authors show to what extent participation, i.e. preparation of food in the Taste of Home enables refugees to exist in a transnational field. Finally they point to two completely opposite ways in which Croatian citizens accept asylees involved in this initiative (from friendliness to distance), other asylees, protection seekers and refugees in Croatia in general.

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