Portuguese migrants in Rio de Janeiro: exploring identity ambivalences through food practices

Abstract

This article discusses the role of food and food circulation in contemporary migration. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 with young Portuguese immigrant families who have entered the country recently, the article focuses on their dominant perceptions and values concerning local food practices, as well as their routines on food selection, acquisition, preparation, and consumption to examine and discuss the group’s strategies of belonging and positioning in Brazil. Moreover, this discussion also explores the centrality of food in the evocation of origin and its relevance among the things that circulate across the Atlantic Ocean, following the same route the families travelled.