Diasporans’ Emotional Attitudes toward Foodways

ABSTRACT In immigrant communities, food often carries significant emotional weight, symbolizing a connection to home, family, and identity. As immigrants settle into new countries, familiar dishes serve as comforting reminders of their roots, evoking memories of loved ones, celebrations, and daily life in their homeland. For many, cooking and sharing traditional foods offer solace and continuity in an environment where they may feel culturally isolated. In this way, food becomes not just sustenance but a vessel for preserving language, customs, and stories that might otherwise fade away over generations. In a number of case studies, we elicited specificity of the Russophone immigrants’ attitudes toward ‘Russian’ cuisine. Russophone immigrants who arrived in the USA and Germany about 30 years ago were thrilled with simple products, often sending them back to relatives in Russia and Ukraine. Over time, their tastes evolved, and they began seeking out more sophisticated options and adopted fusion culinary. They shop for specific items in various stores, not only Russian ones, and have integrated local and international flavors into their diets, reflecting a blend of their origins and new surroundings. Despite adapting to new culinary landscapes, they maintain strong ties to their cultural food traditions, often seeking out specific food products indispensable for making their favorite dishes. A person who stays in Turkey for 20 years exemplifies the dual process of culinary adaptation and resistance in migration. Second-generation Russophone diasporans are not nostalgic but have some preferences in what concerns Russian products. The study reveals that culinary nostalgia functions as both an emotional and symbolic bridge, enabling Russophone immigrants to preserve cultural identity while adapting to new environments. By analyzing food talk, it shows how native/heritage-language discourse around food mediates belonging, resilience, and the blending of old and new culinary traditions across transnational contexts.