Definitions
Food insecurity has wide effects and has an influence that extends beyond communities at risk. In wealthy countries, the two major approaches to addressing food security are policies such as social benefits and food aid. As governments abandon the issue, third-party groups step in to provide services to those in need, as seen by the fast expansion of food banks and charitable food programs. Food aid, as predicted, does nothing to solve the underlying causes of food poverty and insecurity. Clearly, developed-country responses are ineffective. However, there are real remedies to the problem; what many countries need is the political commitment to adequately recognize the problem and take meaningful action (Pollard and Booth, 2019)
If culturally satisfying foods are not available or accessible due to their high cost, this can alter cultural values about food consumption (Moffat et al., 2017). At the individual level, many of the foods of the host country are not enjoyed as before, which generates other dissatisfaction and tremendous emotional nostalgia, which can negatively affect mental health.
This issue implies significant challenges to guarantee health and physical and mental well-being to this vulnerable group; since migrating to a new country can cause a loss of comfort, familiarity, and identity. It is essential to understand the cultural dimensions of food and eating as part of the broader experience of food security for immigrants in order to implement social programs that help mitigate the barriers that immigrants and refugees face when talking about food security in Canada (Moffat et al., 2017).
The definition outlines that food security “exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 2003). Food insecurity, while understood in relation to food security, is a term, which also requires clarification. Food insecurity occurs when either the physical, social or economic aspects of food security access are absent or jeopardized (FAO, 2003; Gharras et al., 2015).
Food security is variously defined. A widely used definition from the 1996 World Food Summit reads: “Food security is attained when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO 2016:para 1)
There is, however, a growing body of work in anthropology that connects food insecurity with biosocial factors and consequences, including coping strategies, mental health dimensions, and social networks (Dhokarh et al. 2011 ; Hadley and Crooks 2012; Hadley and Patil 2008; Himmelgreen et al. 2007; Weaver and Hadley 2009; Weaver, Meek, and Hadley 2014).
Facts, Figures, and Statistics
The demographic occurrence of food insecurity is usually unknown in most wealthy nations due to a lack of evaluation and the use of quasi tools. Food insecurity is intimately linked to poverty and because some countries lack official government statistics, estimates of household food insecurity are based on potential predictors such as national poverty limits (50-60% of median income). In some wealthy countries, such as Australia and Japan with 21.7 percent of households, 4.6 million people, and 15.7 percent, 19.8 million people, respectively in 2012 based on 50-60% of the national poverty line, Canada with 7.7%, 1.9 million in 2007 and 2008, the European Union with 8.7%, 43.6 million when 27 countries are included, and the United States with 15 percent of the population which is approximately 50 million (Pollard and Booth, 2019).
Canadian data identifies that, at the household level, recent immigrants have higher levels of food insecurity (15.2%) than the rest of the population (Vatanparast et al., 2020). In addition, since 1989, the number of immigrants who require assistance from food banks has increased by 92 percent and is expected to increase in the coming years.
Background of the problem
While biosocial and cultural factors are relevant to all people, immigrating to a new country can bring about a loss of comfort, familiarity, and identity. Traditional foods and ways of eating are a product of ecology, customs, and traditions that are tied to ethno-cultural identity (McElroy and Townsend 2015). With migration, foodways may change, but conserving them as much as possible may be a vital component in maintaining one’s identity as an immigrant in a new setting.
Desirable traditional foods, or foods obtained and eaten in culturally familiar ways, moreover, are important in maintaining family and community networks (Beagan, Ristovski-Slijepcevic, and Chapman 2010; Vallianatos and Raine 2008; Vue, Wolff, and Goto 2011).
Investigating the food security of immigrants from a cultural standpoint, moreover, has implications for population health because the health status of immigrants generally declines as they adapt and change their diets to resemble that of their host countries (Beiser 2005; Flores and Brotenek 2005; Newbold 2006; Sanou et al. 2014; Varghese and Moore-Orr 2002). Individuals who maintain a strong cultural identity may have healthier dietary habits than those who have adopted a North American1 diet (Dixon, Sundquist, and Winkleby 2000; Mazur, Marquis, and Jensen 2003)
The move towards a North American diet may not be just a by product of acculturation but may be in part due to food insecurity, as food insecure households are more likely to consume low-cost, energy dense foods based on refined grains, added sugars, and fats (Drenowski 2004), and there is evidence that this pattern also occurs among immigrants who experience food insecurity (Girard and Sercia 2013). As is highlighted in Carney’s (2015) ethnography of food insecure women from Mexico and Central America living in California, many immigrants come to the United States and Canada to escape food insecurity in their countries of origin, only to find themselves continuing to grapple with it in their new host country. Once they arrive, they are challenged not only by household food insecurity but with adapting to a new food system and foodways
Background of the problem
Most food security?related policies and program research have emphasized the first three dimensions namely access, availability, and utilization (Tarraf et al., 2017). In many developed countries, there are very high rates of stress, financial hardship, and food insecurity among refugees and other forced migrants; and unemployment, low income, and recent arrival are often associated with food insecurity among newcomers (Tarraf et al., 2017). Lack of savings or income places recent immigrant families at a higher risk of food insecurity in the first year following immigration, as many struggle to find a job and may face discrimination due to their race or/and their lack of permanent status (Tarraf et al., 2017). In fact, more than half of all refugee families with children under 5 years reported food insecurity in some UK and US studies (Tarraf et al., 2017). Even if immigrants are not economically vulnerable, accessing home?country foods of their choice is also challenging. This cultural factor is especially essential for some Canadian demographic groups, such as Aboriginal people and immigrants, who have a cultural connection to food (Vahabi et al., 2011).
Stigmatization and shame due to the use of social assistance services physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs food preferences for an active life and healthy life biosocial factors and consequences, including coping strategies, mental health dimensions, and social network customs and traditions that are linked to ethnocultural identity
Immigrants lack knowledge about social assistance programs or support centers to help them adapt to a new country.
There is a feeling of shame on the part of people who need help and do not dare to seek help through being rejected, deported or discriminated against for going to these food support centres.
Many immigrants distrust the quality and quantity of food provided to them.
It is thought that these support centers only generate more expenses for the government and perpetuate an unsolvable problem.
The government does not invest in obtaining sufficient personnel and infrastructure to guarantee access to immigrants to community centers effectively.
Immigrants, refugees, health personnel and Canadian government authorities.
With migration, eating habits can change, causing a feeling of nostalgia and depression due to not having access to food that is culturally known. Furthermore, desirable traditional foods, or foods obtained and consumed in culturally familiar ways, are essential in maintaining family and community networks. The food security of immigrants has implications for the health of the population because the health status of immigrants generally worsens as they adapt and change their diets to resemble those of their host countries (Obesity, diabetes, depression and anxiety, among others). People who maintain a solid cultural identity may have healthier eating habits than those who have adopted a North American diet.
Cause of the problem
Food is an essential determinant of wellbeing. The amount and nature of the food we eat influences our wellbeing status, and our wellbeing is basic to usefulness and flourishing.
Food instability is connected with higher paces of self?reported chronic weakness and persistent ailments, A few studies have shown that food?insecure families are in danger of having dull and low?quality counts calories, diminished micronutrient admission, iron?deficiency paleness, and low admission of organic products, vegetables, and dairy items, especially among ladies and youth (Pollard, C. & Booth, S., 2019). A limited financial plan, prompting the acquisition of less expensive and more energy?dense food varieties is additionally a contributing element to extreme energy consumption and over the top weight gain. Similarly, food uncertainty is connected with terrible eating routine and wellbeing among Canadian settlers.
A number of studies have taken a research on nutrition rate for immigrants and contrasted with that of the non-immigrant Canadian people. In general, foreigners are at higher gamble of deficient calcium, iron, and protein consumption. Additionally, a long openness to the Canadian culture was connected with an expanded admission of fat and sodium by rookies.
At long last, migration can lead to acculturation. There are circumstances where for various reasons, the foreigner chooses to leave home?country diet and completely embraces Canadian dietary examples. This cycle is alluded as dietary acculturation as the strangers revokes his social dietary personality. Drivers of dietary acculturation incorporate variables obstructing home food utilization, pre?immigration history, newness to Canadian food sources, staple obtainment examples and cooking procedures, ignorance of Canadian nourishment talk, correspondence hindrances, social disconnection, and monetary frailty.
Government authorities, health personnel, and volunteers have the role of establishing and implementing community aid projects through health and nutrition campaigns in schools, community centers, and clinics.
With very minimal official help, most developed countries respond to food insecurity by providing food assistance delivered by the volunteer sector. Food assistance is typically provided by the volunteer or philanthropic sector in the form of food banks, pantries, parcels, and soup kitchens. The health sector’s three main priority actions in developed countries to address food and nutrition insecurity are: (1) to provide technical expertise (nutrition science, public health, food safety, and health promotion) to support the development of food and nutrition programs to ensure interventions are nutritionally adequate and do not worsen health issues; (2) to contribute to the systematic monitoring and control of the performance and outcomes of dietary interventions; and (3) to contribute to the systematic monitoring and surveillance of the performance and outcomes of dietary interventions (Pollard, C. & Booth, S., 2019).
Conclusion
It is essential, moreover, to recognize the cultural dimensions of food and eating as part of the larger experience of food security for immigrants because cultural factors and change in diet profoundly affect the experience of immigrant and refugee food insecurity and are determinants of health outcomes and well-being.
Food instability excessively influences migrants in Canada; sadly, they involve the lower end of the socio?economic range and along these lines adding to the weight of socio?cultural challenges they are already confronting. The elevated degree of food uncertainty adds to terrible eating routine quality and the ascent in overweight and other persistent medical issue and consequently to the deficiency of solid worker status. For sure, primarily of the general Canadian populace, shows that people residing in food?insecure families have higher paces of self?reported chronic frailty and persistent medical issue. Along these lines, understanding and appropriately tending to the variables related with food weakness among Canadian workers is critical for a satisfactory joining of migrants. As Canada is a well-known objective for migrants and mix of beginners is a significant technique for the country’s segment development and monetary turn of events, understanding and appropriately tending to the variables related with food challenges among Canadian foreigners is critical, yet requires a sufficient comprehension of the prompt and underlying drivers of the issue.
References
Food Services. (2021, March 29). The Salvation Army in Canada. https://salvationarmy.ca/what-we-do/food-services/
Heart and Stroke Foundation. (2013). Access To Affordable, Healthy and Nutritious Food (“Food Security”). https://www.heartandstroke.ca/-/media/pdf-files/canada/2017-position-statements/accessto-affordablehealthy-nutritiousfoods-ps-eng.ashx?la=en
Moffat, T., Mohammed, C., & Newbold, K. B. (2017). Cultural Dimensions of Food Insecurity among Immigrants and Refugees. Human Organization, 76(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259.76.1.15
Pollard, C. M., & Booth, S. (2019). Food Insecurity and Hunger in Rich Countries-It Is Time for Action against Inequality. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(10), 1804. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16101804
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Tarraf, D., Sanou, D., & Giroux, I. (2017, February 15). Immigration and food insecurity: The Canadian experience – A literature review. Intechopen. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/53486
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Vahabi, M., Damba, C., Rocha, C., & Montoya, EC. Food insecurity among Latin American recent immigrants in Toronto. J Immigr Minor Heal. 2011;13(5):929–939. doi:10.1007/s10903?010?9384?y.
Vatanparast, H., Koc, M., Farag, M., Garcea, J., Engler-Stringer, R., Qarmout, T., Henry, C., Racine, L., White, J., Iqbal, R., Khakpour, M., Dasarathi, S., & D’Angelo, S. (2020). Exploring food security among recently resettled Syrian refugees: results from a qualitative study in two Canadian cities. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 16(4), 527–542. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmhsc-03-2019-0031
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