Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnographic investigation of several Vietnamese restaurants in Leipzig, Germany, this paper details the ways in which food became a tool for Vietnamese migrants to make sense of their migratory experience while negotiating their sense of (non)belonging and identity in the host country.

Paper long abstract:

Food is an extraordinarily important element for identity constructions. By adhering to a specific food culture, people staged and performed their identities. Through the creation, presentation, and consumption of food, identities are continuously negotiated. In the case of Vietnamese migrants in Germany, food stands and restaurants became ways in which Vietnamese contract workers who faced precarious status in Germany after the reunification of the two German states gained legal status and eventually became one of the most successful migrant groups in the country. Yet, the 'success story' of Vietnamese migrants in Germany can only be perceived as a success from a specific viewpoint. By emphasizing the positive effects of food businesses on migrants' integration and cultural enrichment of the host societies, the process of self-understanding and subsequently the negotiation of migrants' identities and belonging are ignored. Based on an ethnographic investigation of several Vietnamese owned restaurants in Leipzig, Germany, This paper details the way in which food became a tool for Vietnamese migrants to make sense of their migratory experience while negotiating their sense of (non)belonging and identity in the host country. The paper will show that precisely through the precarious status of restaurant owners and workers, new forms of (non)belonging and identities emerge as they navigate through the boundaries of the societies they are a part of.