‘You want to feed your family, don’t you?’ Exploring the consequences of economic crisis for everyday food practices in immigrant communities

This article examines some of the consequences of recent economic recession for everyday food practices in immigrant communities in the United States. Immigrant communities already struggle with scarcity and cope with numerous threats to maintaining basic livelihoods. Examining these social dynamics through the lens of food scarcity and gendered relations around migrant household food practices, I demonstrate how economic crises compound the effects of differential access to essential resources and place increased strain on women in particular. The data I draw upon stem from ethnographic fieldwork with Mexican and Central American women in the United States. I allude to the broader consequences of social and economic policies in the context of economic crisis, especially as these articulate with patterns of immigration and access to resources. I conclude by arguing for broader attention to food practices into the relatively nascent body of ethnographic literature on women's migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States, and to struggles with food scarcity in studies of migration more generally.