Culturally marked food: immigrants' perspective in a cosmopolitan city

Michelle Bergadaà

Professor

Sales and Marketing Strategies Observatory (OVSM)

University of Geneva

Michelle.Bergadaa@unige.ch

Culturally marked food: immigrants' perspective in a cosmopolitan city

Abstract :

For immigrants, food represents an identity and a personal and community bond. It is all the

more important, as this identity will evolve as it comes into contact with other cultures. Our

research took place in the cosmopolitan city of Geneva. The socio-demographic and cultural

characteristics of the immigrant population in Geneva are very different from those that are

usually studied to analyze immigrants’ integration trends. We conducted two surveys as the

basis for our naturalistic inquiry. The first focused on thirteen immigrant, all household. We

then created two focus groups with single young immigrants. In order to understand the social

construct of "culturally marked food,” we conducted a semiotic square analysis. We were able

to establish the link between the signifier and the signified, between discourse and the

meaning of culturally marked food.

Key words: Food culture, immigrants, semiotic square analysis.

Nourriture culturellement marquée : la perspective des immigrants d’une ville

cosmopolitaine

Résumé :

L’alimentation constitue un lien identitaire, personnel et communautaire pour les immigrés.

Notre recherche s’est déroulée dans la ville cosmopolite de Genève. Les caractéristiques

socio-économiques et culturelles de Genève sont très différentes des situations généralement

étudiées pour analyser les tendances d’interaction des immigrants. Nous avons procédé à une

recherche naturelle sur la base de deux enquêtes. La première, auprès de douze femmes

immigrées, toutes mères de famille. Nous avons ensuite réalisé deux groupes de discussion

auprès de jeunes immigrés. Nous avons réalisé une analyse par carré sémiotique de leurs

échanges verbaux a permis d'établir le lien entre le signifiant et le signifié, entre le discours et

le sens de l’alimentation culturellement marquée. Nous avons établi le lien entre signifiants et

signifies, entre discours et sens de la nourriture culturellement marquée.

Mots-clés : Culture alimentaire, immigrants, carré sémiotique.

Culturally marked food: immigrants' identity in a cosmopolitan city

1. Introduction

From the earliest stages of childhood, individuals construct their identity through their

relationships with their family members, surroundings and culture. Food consumption is one

of the most fundamental pillars of these relationships. In all cultures, the meal is a basis for

socialization. In our discipline, studies on immigration have been guided by the mainstream

concept (or project) of “acculturation.” Since Berry’s seminal works (1997), the underlying

logic has been that the dominant group in the host country try to use norms and standards to

accelerate the integration of the immigrant minority. Berry suggests placing individuals in

sub-groups according to their attitudes and behavior. These groups are “integration,”

“assimilation,” “separation” and “marginalization.” These Anglo-American studies aim to

establish, clarify or implement a taxonomy for immigrants (Ward, 2008). Studies tend also to

concentrate on the immigration of groups that have a lower socio-economic status than the

population in the host cities, such as Haitians in Chicago and Mexicans in the United States.

But when a person and their family immigrate to a city as cosmopolitan as Geneva

(Switzerland), what happens to this specific cultural identity?

Geneva is a particularly interesting city to study, because statistical analysis (Federal

Statistical Office, 2005) shows that Switzerland has the most foreign residents in Europe, with

foreigners making up more than 21% of the population. In other European countries the

average proportion is less than 10% (Portugal only has 2%). Within Switzerland, Geneva has

the largest number of foreigner residents: approximately 45% of the population, representing

some 180 nationalities. Geneva, however, is a rich city that does not have any truly

marginalized communities. Compared to many immigration countries, this “community of

foreigners” is not globally poor. For example, although on average 10.4% of Swiss people are

poor, the figure is only 7% for North and West Europeans. Geneva thus remains very

cosmopolitan in its food habits. Our aim is to better understand how the mental representation

of cultural identity becomes a social food representation (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). The

synchronic approach of our research allows us to stick mainly to the declarative stage. By

doing so, we follow Gadamer’s (1996) approach, for whom hermeneutics is first the

observation of our own biases and our own understanding. We set out to understand the social

representations of "culturally marked cuisine". Semiotic square analysis is a tool that is

particularly well adapted to analyzing the content of transcripts of interviews on dialectic

themes, such as the one dealt with here, as it involves expressing what it means to be both

here and somewhere else.

2. General conceptual framework

The first question that guided our research is to how the concept of culture is expressed in the

patchwork of ethnic cultures that can be found in an international city such as Geneva. We

adopted the approach used by Askegaard et al. (2009) and consider culture to be a social

construct that is not imposed on the individual but that the individual makes his own and co-

develops. There is therefore no question of accepting the globalized view of a uniform

culture, in line with Levitt (1983). In addition, similarly to the city of London studied by

Cook and Grang (1996), it offers a great variety of ethnic food products, enabling them to

cook a wide variety of dishes. No monolithic culinary culture has become dominant among

the many diasporas in Geneva. Furthermore, Askegaard et al. (2009) challenges Hofstede’s

view (1980) that diversity is based on the distinctions between geographic nations. Such a

generalized concept of culture cannot harness the diversity that is found in Geneva. The

consumer builds an identity for himself/herself (and his/her family) through his/her specific

choices of consumption (Bouchet, 1995; Firat, 1995; Askegaard et al., 2005; Panaloza, 1994).

But, over and above being a habit, food consumption is an identifier that grounds a person's

feeling of authenticity (Topalov, 2004). When there is uprooting caused by family

immigration, it is interesting to consider the factors that determine the construction of a new

identity.

So great is the number of studies on the interlinkages between man and food that it is illusory

to select the most interesting ones. Food is indeed at the heart of human life, since we cannot

live without it. It is also at the centre of social life, through connections interwoven around

daily or ritual meals. Food also constitutes most of our world's economic exchanges. The

trade of foodstuffs has for centuries underpinned migration flows and finally enabled the

construction of Europe as we know it today (Braudel, 1996). Ethnologists have shown us that

individuals structure their social representation and their place within their culture through

specific food preparation (Mead and Guthe, 1945; Lévi-Strauss, 1964; Wilk, 1999; etc.).

Sociologists have shown us that food structures the relations, communication and constitution

of the family and is at the basis of the organization of social representations (Bourdieu, 1979;

Fischer, 1990, 1996; Corbeau, 1992, 1997; Bell and Valentine, 1997; Poulain, 1997; etc.).

Psychology has confirmed that a person's identity and self-image is created around what that

person eats (Nemeroff and Rozin, 1989; Rozin, 1990; etc.). These studies highlight both the

complexity of food and the central role that it plays.

Our inquiry focuses on the identity link between individuals and their food. People's tastes in

food and culinary habits are acquired during childhood. They take root not just in a

geographic and economic context, but also in a framework of religious, cultural, moral and

family values. This identity rests on the principle of "incorporation" of the nutrients together

with the symbols and myths that are linked to them (Poulain, 1997). This "culinary identity" is

therefore an organized mixture of feelings, representations and experiences (Rozin, 1990). By

changing habitat, country or continent, people are de facto led to modify their "food

personality." This, however, is not always easy among groups of migrants. As highlighted by

Malewska-Peyre (1993), young immigrants may sometimes experience identity disorders.

And food is one of the dimensions of this socialization issue.

Our inquiry is also related to the development of immigrants' community identity as it

pertains to food consumption. Indeed, people live together, mutually influence each other and

co-produce values (Goffman, 1973; Mead and Guthe, 1945). A social representation is built

by those who, when faced with the constraints of their environment, find compromises in

order to use the products available (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). These social

representations are also prescriptive (how to behave in one's society). They reinforce the

central values of the community, but they also protect against potential external aggressions

(Jodelet, 1991). Thus, in terms of food, the memory of the taste and smell of a dish travels

with the immigrant (Beji-Becheur and Özçaglar-Toulous,e 2008). The connection with their

roots is mainly welded through culturally marked food (Askegaard et al., 2005), but does this

enable them to maintain a link with the values of their families and reference group that share

the same food referent?

3. Methodology

The informants in this research live in an urban area within a big city where many cultures

come together on a daily basis. The participants have been selected based on the cultural

heterogeneity criteria in order to promote the diversity of perspectives (Stewart et al., 2007).

Long interviews were conducted with thirteen women who were involved in the preparation

of family meals, using the criterion of data saturation (Denzin and Lincoln, 1988). The goal

was to let people speak freely about their personal experience pertaining to their cooking

culture (McCraken, 1988). This way, each interviewee could freely express her deeper

emotional social feelings and tell her everyday life story (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The

length of the exchange enabled the underlying content to emerge. The interviews were long

ones: forty minutes at least, an hour and a half at most, and the part relating to culinary culture

was approximately 40-45 minutes long.

In order to understand how the mental representations of their culinary identity were

transformed into social representation through interaction as well as over time, we then

created two focus groups (Krueger, 1994), each of them with seven single young immigrants

Some of them came to Geneva as young children, and others as teenagers. The objective of

our focus groups was not to verify the truthfulness of the statements of our respondents nor to

look for the reasons behind them, but to explore the culturally produced discourse (Moisander

et Valtonen, 2006). Through the participants social interaction within the focus group we

were able to foresee the underlying social representations: each respondent was able thanks to

the presence of others to interpret his/her actions, evaluate how others see it and interpret it

(Morgan, 2002). This was done to allow the emergence of the shared social representations.

The meeting with each focus group lasted between one hour and fifty minutes and two hours.

The analysis was based on the full transcription of the long interviews and focus groups. The

objective was to reconstruct the underlying organization common to all respondents as well as

to understand the reasons for individual divergences. According to Jodelet (1991), social

representations go beyond establishing identity – they also have the function of behavior

orientation. The next stage was to read the interview transcripts and iteratively group them by

dimension. Our study was based on the analysis of the semiotic sign. By examining how the

signifier is expressed, we were led to understand the deeper meaning that these first- and

second-generation immigrants ascribe to culturally marked food. In order to better grasp what

is signified, we chose to use Greimas and Rastier's (1968) semiotic square analysis.

The principle of the semiotic square rests enables one to visualize the logical relations that

make up a semantic network for the narrator: contrariety (good/bad), contradiction (good/not

good) and complementarity (good/not bad). Our task was then to "move from noting

differences to defining relations,” (Floch, 1990). The semiotic square is made up of four

terms: Position 1 (term A); Position 2 (term B); Position 3 (term non-B) and Position 4 (term

non-A). The two first terms form an opposition (a relation of contrariety), whereas the other

two are a result of their negation. immigrants and representing the new cooking culture

detached from their culture of origin. We then looked at the four "metaterms" which illustrate

the way in which people dynamically reconcile the different positions of the terms, and are

presented in the schema below.

Figure1: Analysis of culturally marked food by means of the semiotic square

4. Results: building an Identity

4.1 Term A - “Ethnic cooking identification”

Our first research question was to find out how the identity of “Ethnic cooking identification”

represents the opposite of “Swiss cooking culture”. The first coding of the data showed that

by making reference to “Ethnic cooking culture,” people are first and foremost referring to

their family of origin. For example, Sonia, (39, Italy) notices: "My mother used to use the

same ingredients. I learned more in a visual way than in a practical one." Indeed, Warde

(1997) speaks of "the memory of mealtimes,” which occurs when, as a child, one observes

and is steeped in the atmosphere. This is an integral part of the mental representation of

“Ethnic cooking identification,” mentioned by Eva (39, Italy): "And for us it was always a

pleasure to take a product that came directly from the farm, especially when it was given to us

out of pure kindness by our neighbors, who were somehow almost part of the family." But

cooking is also a cultural identifier that is used as an expression of the place of origin, in

opposition to Swiss culture, as stated by Anna (58, Spain), who comes from a country quite

close to Switzerland: "I am Spanish, so food that comes from the earth, such as eggplant,

tomatoes, peppers, this type of food is very important to me." One and the same dish can

affirm the specificity of a culture and be a source of disgust to another (Fischer, 1996). For

Cecilia (32, San Salvador), on the other hand, being conscious of her “Ethnic cooking

identification” stems from the difficulty of finding the right products to maintain her cooking

habits: "In my country, San Salvador…we eat a lot of fish and seafood because we are right

by the sea. At home we always have fish, seafood, so I try to find it here, but it's not the real

thing…" Young immigrants seem to have a somewhat more distanced approach than their

parents. For example, Marcelo (22, Uruguay) said: "But my parents do strange things. For

example, they bring back some maté, put it in the cupboard, and don't dare drink it because

they are afraid that there won't be any left afterwards." In fact, the respondents were not

fooled by idealistic notions of preserving their links with their origins. Zaïna, from Eritrea, a

very distant country, has a lot of trouble finding products from her country. She and her

husband wanted their children to be completely integrated because they do not think that they

will ever go back. She said: "The children, they were born here. They enjoy it (Eritrean food),

but not as much as we do.” "Not as much as we do" is a nuance not to be underestimated.

This type of situation has already been examined by Joy and Wallendorf (1996): it is

constructed by children, and is neither the rejection of the culture of origin nor the full

adoption of the host culture. Their mothers are completely aware of it.

4.2 Term B – “Swiss cooking identification”

Our in-depth interviews demonstrated that “Swiss cooking identification” is not well

accepted. An immigrant living in Geneva is confronted with numerous acculturation agents.

Swiss culture is not uniform1. For the people in our sample Swiss food, is considered to have

no specific characteristics. Therefore, eating Swiss dishes is a public act that is rather

impersonal. Florence (36, Britain) comes from a modest background – her husband is a

worker and she is a housewife. She justifies her adoption of Swiss cooking culture by

focusing on the health aspect, not the cultural one: “Melted cheese is more for winter, for the

mountains. But we eat cold cheese with each meal. Especially the kids. It contains a lot of

calcium. So they love it and it makes them grow better.” Young people generally also consider

“Swiss cooking culture” to be much stranger than their own “Ethnic cooking culture,” which

1 For example, rösti (a crispy potato cake and typically Swiss-German dish) gave rise to the French expression “le fossé de rösti” (the rösti gap) or “röstigraben” (German for the rösti gap) which refers to the different mentality and traditions of German- and French-speaking Switzerland.

still constitutes a point of reference. For example, Fabiola (29, Mexico), who is a student and

married to a Swiss computer scientist, dichotomizes both cultures through their respective

culinary expression. She seems not in the least inclined to adopt those habits that she feels are

strange: "Of course I make corn tortillas! And lots of beans, chicken with spicy sauces, meat

with spicy sauces…this is for every day. Even if my Swiss husband wants to give our child

Swiss things…chicory in a white cheesy sauce!!! I make my child corn tortillas and beans.”

4.3 Term Non-A – “Cosmopolitan cooking identification”

We then inferred that the contradictory term, the negation of “Ethnic cooking identification”

(Non-A) represents integration into a cosmopolitan community. Evelina (28, Ukraine) said: “I

had Vietnamese friends. The European food made them sick.” Here, European food is classed

as “cosmopolitan” and Vietnamese food as “ethnic identification.” Proceeding in this way

with a large number of expressions (until saturation of sense), we are able to specify that term

Non-A is “cosmopolitan cooking identification.” People from our sample admit that the

flavors that are acquired during childhood cannot be passed on during adulthood if these

flavors are too exotic and that they have to abandon them if they want to be part of this

“cosmopolitan Geneva”. This is what Alicia (39, Chile), explained: "A few years ago, if I had

a product that I liked at home, one of high value to me, and I was with friends, I would share

it with them. But then I learned that not everybody likes these products because they are really

different. It was "pupuca" or meals that are very typical where I come from… So of course not

everybody likes them..." But the city of Geneva offers a wide number of typical restaurants of

high quality. Our respondents enjoy tasting products from other cultural origins and thus

being part of "cosmopolitan Geneva,” as Sonia (39, Italy): "I would like people to always be

curious about food. We should teach people to be curious about food to educate them." It is

clear that many of these young people want to transcend the divisions while still being able to

pinpoint them. Evelina (28, Ukraine) said: "I want my children to have a more cosmopolitan

mind. If I say this is what I eat, it's my cooking, it means that I identify with my origins, only

with my nationality. If I say that I will only eat things from my country, it means that I'm

closing up to everything around me. So I think that cooking, in addition to what we eat, also

represents our degree of openness to others.“ This example reflect the role of food as a factor

of openness towards others and of a true cosmopolitan spirit for her future children.

4.4 Term Non-B – “Plurality of ethnic cooking identification”

The negation of “Swiss cooking culture” (non-B) is demonstrated by a feeling of belonging to

a locally present cultural community. We analyzed the distinctions put forward by our

respondents. Here is an example of our method of analysis: Sadam (25, Morocco) says: “a

Swiss person took a recipe for couscous and made it. He invited some Tunisian and

Moroccans friends for dinner. He asked “is it good?” They said “No.”… The people told him:

“you don’t have the same hands as us and your hands don’t smell the same, so you can’t make

the same couscous.” In this narration, we see that Moroccans and Tunisians, which are not

neighboring countries, are united against Switzerland. Immigrants sometimes go to

specialized shops to buy typical fresh products, and they accept to concoct new types of

dishes. Enola (1st generation, India), for instance, said: “Here, we don’t really have a choice.

I’m going to make a curry that’s not too strong, because the imported curry-powder isn’t

really curry-powder, it’s simply chili, so I have to be careful to cook dishes that are suitable

for local palates”. They keep their own culinary culture as a safe value, and adapt it to the

local conditions. They have progressively developed a specific way of cooking with the

products available in Geneva. When they start becoming integrated into the city, they keep

their basic ingredients but appear to make fewer and fewer traditional dishes. But some

ingredients will remain central in everyday cooking: they will be used to recall the beloved

smell and the background taste: "This olive oil is part of a very ancient culture that gives

dishes a different flavor" (Maria, 30, Italy). So, Mediterraneans do not buy their olive oil at

the supermarket, but in specialized shops, whatever the country in which it was produced.

4.5 Positive deixis: Culture based on cooking affiliation

Our interviewees express either implicitly or explicitly the fact that, after some time spent in

the country, the preparation of special dishes becomes an ordeal. Generally, it is not everyday

cooking that is representative. For example, Livia (43, Poland), is reminded of her culture on

special occasions: "Ah! Christmas…my mother made pike for 25 or 30 years. So for me,

without pike it's not Christmas and that's what I've been taught, bigos (it's a dish made with

marinated cabbage) and pike. Ok, there is more than one recipe for pike, but they're all part

of the Polish tradition". These meals bring out the collective memory, recollections and the

symbolism of dishes. The cook is subject to the guests' judgment as they decide if she is (still)

capable of cooking in an authentic manner and consequently of connecting her everyday

“Plurality of ethnic cooking identification” to the genuine “Ethnic cooking identification.”

But the reference to their roots is also clearly expressed by Juan (24, Basque country): "We

meet up in the south and there, actually, the family has kept contact with the neighbors for

generations. The neighbors often give us some duck, some pâté from the farm and we bring

them chocolate. And this type of exchange has existed for many years. Umm…my

grandmother used to go to school with the neighbor and knew the great grandmother, etc." In

this case, the reference point goes beyond the simple culinary dimension and is linked to

family history and locality of origin. This deixis’s specific characteristic is the relationships

between the members of such an international community. This can be done, for example, by

going together to buy the best basic products in "intimate" food-stores and by sharing recipes

from the country of origin. In focus groups, young people talked for a long time about their

“national dish,” which is in fact often the same in more than one county. We recall the

meaning of Huber's (2000) remarks: dishes become "national" when they have left their

country of origin. But, they are no longer talking about a dish, but rather of a meal, with

decorations and music suited to the atmosphere. Aiko (43, Japan) says: "Yes, the atmosphere

in which the guests are received, the general atmosphere also provides a psychological

framework, that things are nice, that people feel comfortable, if there are special dishes,

people will eat them and remember."

4.6 Negative deixis: Alternative cuisine

The negative deixis, which is made up of the relation between “Swiss cooking identification”

and “cosmopolitan cooking identification,” is not always easy to come to terms with. For

example, Sylvia (24, Croatia) said: "It's true that there are some typical dishes, and I am

proud when I cook a Croatian dish for my friends to show them; in any case I am not Swiss

but Croatian.” The people in our focus groups debated about how to remain faithful to their

origins while integrating into the country. In this case, it is clear that traditional festivities are

characterized by the culture of origin. The mere fact that it is a special event allows, or even

encourages, going back to a special cuisine. It is in situations like these that people really

appreciate the cultural event that the dish represents. Hassam, (22, Tunisia) commented on

this: "Because it also takes a lot of time. There is this dish called "mlokheya,” a really good

black thing, but it takes a whole day to make it. Meaning if you start to prepare it at 10

o'clock in the morning it will be ready for 8 in the evening." When they talk about it, the

extraordinary, ritual dimensions are highlighted. In the following example of a young person

talking about couscous, we come across aspects mentioned by Beji-Bechezur and Ozçaglar-

Toulouse (2008). The choice of sharing a "national" dish during a special occasion is a ritual

that binds the members of a community back together. Mohamed (25, Morocco) said: "

Couscous is a sacred dish: it's a dish for God. When we're at a wedding, it's couscous, when

we're at a funeral, it's also couscous. Couscous is a sacred dish related to happiness, related

to joy… Even if it's a whole thing to prepare couscous because you have to peal the

vegetables, prepare the vegetables…"

4.7 Neutral metaterm: “Enlargement of the zone”

It combines “Local ethnic cooking identification” and “Cosmopolitan cooking identification”

for the way people adapt to life in Geneva. People perceive also themselves as coming from -

or having roots - in an enlarged geographical zone. During the focus group discussion, people

very quickly started to identify themselves and each other as “Latino,” “Black,” or

“Mediterranean,” for example. Identification by geographical zones was thus mentioned in

contrast to these local habits. Sylvia (24, with a Croatian mother and Italian father) said:

"Back home we are Croatian and Italian, so Mediterranean. And this is important because all

the things around (the meal) make it even more special. It's not just the fact that I cook a dish

from home; it’s also about being a good hostess. So it's more a way of doing things. At seven

o'clock we drink martini, the "venis." And my friends they come into my kitchen, open the

fridge or the cupboard and they take the plates out…you would never see this at a Swiss

person’s place." The wish to identify with a given geographic zone does not at all fit with

globalization. It represents the fear of this globalization, that Ritzer (2007) coined

"McDonaldization" or “a sterilizing globalization”. On the contrary, people wish to create a

link between their “plurality of ethnic cooking identification” and their cosmopolitan

everyday life, and this shows most of all in their curiosity about other local ethnic cooking

cultures. Marthe (56, Canada) mentioned this: "In some families it's the sharing of bread. To

cut the bread into four and give a piece to each, it's a religious culture, it's really…they are

fundamentals that are really very, very old. I think we should retain something of this. Now we

don't even share a meal…if this is what we should come to, in the whole world, it would be a

sad thing."

4.8 Complex metaterm: Food métissage

The last term is complex and represents the link - or the reconciliation - of “Ethnic cooking

identification” with “Swiss cooking identification”. Ger and Belk (1996), examine the major

trends pertaining to food-related behavior. These include withdrawing into one's roots, a type

of resistance to the generic culture, a re-interpretation of the local codes or a “creolization”

witch implies the transformation of an integrated set of dishes and food practices by a group

of immigrants (Askegaard et al., 2004; Béji-Bécheur and Ozcagalar-Toulouse, 2008). After

reading and rereading the transcripts, we did not find any examples of “creolization”

according to this additional definition for culinary culture. In one of the focus groups, the

participants laughed a lot by freely imagining recipes such as “a curry fondue,” “chocolate

couscous” and so on. On the other hand, those who come from far away deplore the fact that

they cannot hand this authentic taste down to their children. As Cécilia (32, San Salvador)

said: "Unfortunately, red beans are very important to me, and I cannot give them to my

children. When I come back from having visited my country I always want to have them taste

the food from over there, really, it's a different taste". This is related to Zajonc and Markus’

(1982) idea that Mexican mothers teach their children to like chili by introducing it

progressively into their meals. What we found is more a “métissage” between two types of

food that are very different in terms of ingredients, basic products, cooking and cultural

behavior. And this “métissage” results from accepting the differences, rather than from

forgetting them. Fischer (1996) has pointed out that the organization of social life is no longer

tacitly centered on social rules. For example, Livia (43, Poland) said: " My mother was an

excellent cook and it is only much later that I realized that she had passed down to me her

know-how without me knowing it. I’m trying to pass it down to my daughter, who has closed

eyes (laughs) and blocked ears (laughs), but I hope that I am planting a little seed that will

sprout only later". A shared "territory" of values and specific food consumption habits is what

constitutes the community of immigrants from a specific country.

5. Discussion and conclusion

Rudmin (2003) believes that Berry’s fourfold classification model is so popular because it is

politically biased towards the liberal ideal of the dominant way of thinking: that minority

groups should be helped to integrate into the host country. In our research, we adopted a

different, unbiased approach: that of trying to understand why immigrants represent their

cultural identity through cooking. We were looking to understand the identity that is

constructed built through words and discourse in interpersonal and social exchanges relating

to food. A semiotic analysis was used in order to study the social construct of the culinary

culture. As such, the semiotic square is not used to classify individuals. Instead, it is a social

representation, and the terms are alternatively covered over a period of time, or even within a

single day. Consequently, the same person may be involved in “Ethnic cooking identification”

while thinking about her family, but is instantly going to think that she wants to be

cosmopolitan in her social life. Therefore, to reconcile the two, she might think of adopting

“Plurality of ethnic cooking identification,” and ultimately notes that she is moving away

from “Swiss cooking identification”, etc.

As regards the concept of acculturation, which is a focal point in most research, the use of

inductive analysis through the semiotic square offers new elements. Intrinsically, it reflects

the variation in individuals who feel (and say) they are from “here,” “there” or “elsewhere”

and it is particularly well adapted to the concept of postassimilationism. Firstly, we found, like

Penaloza (1994) and Oswald (1999), that acculturation was not a synonym for assimilation,

but that immigrants may keep certain aspects of their culture of origin and develop a new and

different pattern of cultural identity. Along the same lines, Askegaard et al. (2005) found that

immigrants have four identity positions after they have been subject to three external forces of

acculturation. However, in the international city of Geneva, everyone is subject to a

patchwork of acculturation agents. We could therefore not find any unique or dominant

acculturation influence that could lead to assimilation to the detriment of the individual’s

culture of origin. The population that we studied is closer to the model of individual voluntary

immigration, and their cosmopolitanism is in line with the specific characteristics of the city

of Geneva. It is quite different than Thompson and Tambyah (1999) found in their study of

expatriates. In fact, the expatriates in Geneva are a very particular group. Nevertheless, a

specific study of the expatriate community could easily be the subject of a later research

project, with a view to a comparison with the work of Thompson and Tambyah (1999).

Of course, this research has limits. One such limit is our initial choice not to conduct a full

ethnography with observational data. Although this emic posture allows us to induce a generic

representation scheme, it does not enable us to adopt a diachronic perspective. This alternative

route is indeed chosen by many researchers within the cultural perspective of consumption

(Arnould and Thompson, 2005). We find it more particularly in investigations in

ethnomarketing (Desjeux, 1997). Nonetheless, this alternate perspective could be adopted in

future research to study meal cooking. It would be interesting to follow the respondents over a

certain period, as Penaloza (1994) did, or at least to ask them to fill out a consumption diary,

like Kjeldgaard and Askegaard (2006). The participant observation in situ mostly allows for

understanding the family interactions that revolve around the meal and how members of

different generations influence each other.

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