Paper short abstract:

Drawing on extensive field researches at various migrants' settlements in Italy and Switzerland, we explore the role of food provision policies as an index of the degree of dependency/autonomy granted to guests of the European asylum regimes.

Paper long abstract:

Can food help us understand asymmetrical power relations? In this paper, we present differential food provision policies as an index of the degree of dependency/autonomy granted to migrants within and outside European asylum regimes. We frame our discourse through the notion of hospitality as a practice of sovereignty and control over the stranger and an expression of the moral superiority of the host, in relation to whom the guest holds a subordinated position and a deep indebtedness (Pitt Rivers, 1977; Herzfeld, 1987). Going beyond a simplistic vision of food as mere nourishment, we delve into it as a material and substantial element mediating hospitable, hence asymmetrical, relations (Ortner, 1978), which in this specific context translate into pervasive bordering practices. We engage with most recent studies on hospitality (Aparna and Schapendonk, 2018; Candea and Da Col, 2012; Rosello, 2001; Rozakou, 2012; Shryock, 2012) by scrutinizing the nexus between food and autonomy. Drawing on extensive field researches at various migrants' settlements (from formal reception centers to squats) in Italy and Switzerland, we explore how food instantiates struggles about self-determination, reproduces and/or reshapes gender expected roles, but also generates practices of micro-resistance by both providers and recipients of aid. Zooming on food issues within and at the fringes of European asylum regimes, this paper offers an ethnographic analysis of practices of hospitality as power relations and migrants' agency in regaining control over their own lives.