FOOD & MIGRATION
Understanding the quest for new homes
Since 2014, my writing has increasingly focused on migration. I have explored its many facets, including the history of colonialism and its lingering legacy in the modern diet; refugees looking for a halfway home; migration and its shaping influence on street food, and the importance of migrant cuisine in a city of expatriates. This work has been informed by my own experience of migration. It is also driven by my deep conviction that it is impossible to accurately chronicle contemporary history and culture without accounting for the role that migration has played in shaping them.
In 2017, based on my writing about Sri Lanka, I had the privilege of consulting on the final season of CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. My role was to help the producers understand the social, cultural, and political landscape of Sri Lanka, a country I had come to know closely since I moved there in 2014. During my stay in Sri Lanka, I brought the same curiosity about the country to all my writing. This story on the cuisine of northern Sri Lanka was nominated for the prestigious South Asian Journalists Association award in 2020.
“It is impossible to understand the world without acknowledging the role that migration has played in shaping it. In cities across the world, migrants feed fellow migrants; they shoulder the responsibility of ushering others through the disorientation of being rootless in a new place. Honouring migrants presents a new way of seeing — a kinder, more inclusive way.”