Paper short abstract:

Sri Lankans, a South Asian migrant group in Australia, has a high prevalence ratio of diabetes. This ethnographic study shows that despite receiving medical advice, they support food patters and cooking methods that are sometimes considered to be unhealthy by health professionals not only to preserve their identity but also as a way of maintaining a familiarity with what is known that could be rendering a sense of security in a foreign land.

Paper long abstract:

Diabetes is a chronic illness, which is increasing in incidence, especially among migrant groups in developed countries. In Australia this incidence is much higher among Sri Lankan migrants, who have been identified as having one of the highest standardized prevalence ratios of diabetes in Australia. This ethnographic project examined the everyday context of diabetes management of Sri Lankan migrants in Australia. Diabetes is a lifestyle disease and its management is intrinsically related to food. Many aspects related to the type, preparation, and sharing of food is an important way of maintaining Sri Lankan's cultural and ethnic identity in Australia. Bourdieu argues that eating habits 'cannot be considered independently of the whole life-style' and that taste for particular dishes is associated with a range of factors, including the domestic economy, the division of labour between the sexes and the ideas about the body and the effect of food on the body understood by different social groups and classes (1979: 185). This research shows that despite receiving medical advice, recently migrated Sri Lankans support food patterns and cooking methods that are sometimes considered by health practitioners as unhealthy for better diabetes management. They do this not only as a deliberate attempt to preserve their Sri Lankan identity, but also as a way of maintaining a familiarity with what is known, comforting, giving them a sense of security in a foreign land. Sri Lankan migrants' diabetes management enables various distinctions to be expressed along class, gender, and religious lines providing us an important lens to understand the migrant experience.