In my essay on how immigration impacts food choice in Ireland, I will be discussing different advantages and disadvantages of immigration ant its impact on the country. However not only about the food choice, but also on how immigration reflected on eating habits of people living in Ireland as well as the differences between earlier ages when immigration was not a common thing and immigrants did not have a big influence in the country as in nowadays when immigration is spreading all over the world, especially after Europe Union has been created, now immigration has big influence on every aspect in the county, especially in food culture.
“Food has many roles to play for consumers: it is functional (sustaining life); it plays a key role in our celebrations; it is a conduit for socializing; it is entertaining; it is sensuous and sensual; and it is a way of experiencing new cultures and countries”. (R. Michel & C. Hall, 2003, pg 60).
In these days we hardly can imagine our life without different foreign cousins, like for example Chinese, Indian, French, Italian and etc... But we hardly ever think how and why we have such a big variety of food nowadays, and mainly it is because of immigration.
As we all already know from media and newspapers that since Ireland became a member of Europe union back in 2002 immigration start growing really fast. For example according to the European magazine that already in 2005 it was estimated there were 200000 poles living in Ireland. (www.catebabel.com, 9-10-10), plus all other nationalities as well.
In 2008 was the bigest number of new born registered of 75.065 since the 1846. (www/cso.ie/newsivents). All these numbers and facts jus confirms that Ireland is no longer country of emigration but the country of immigration.
Some of the immigrants come to Ireland for the short period of time and some stays permanently. For whichever reasons people come to Ireland, they bring with them their own culture, traditions and food. Differences in food choice and culture slow and steady spreaded all over the county. People in Ireland become more and more familiar with different countries cousins and food variety. For this reason in these days you can find different kind off shops, for example polish shops with many different names, Lithuanian shops, German
Supermarkets like Aldi and Lidle where you actually can find food from all Eastern Europe, plus you can find Asian shops as well as Pakistani, Chinese, Indian shops and so on and on. All these varieties of the shops and supermarket from different countries just confirms the fact that since immigration in Ireland increased availability of food choice increase as well, people start knowing different ingredients and cooking methods. For this reason in these days everybody knows and like stir fries, curies and so on, people start liking them, even cooking them at home.
If we have a look at availability of the restaurants, in every town in Ireland you can find some many foreign restaurant and take away, in some cases you can see them more the Irish pubs or restaurants.
A biggest advantage of immigration impact on food in Ireland in my opinion is that people start knowing different cuisines and cultures. They now can do some comparisons with they own food and all these cultures can exchange tradition and learn from each other. Food can actually helps to bind society together. (Goody 1982)
Therefore now we even hardly can imagine our life without all of this. We would not have access to different restaurant where we can find authentic foreign food which we so love in these days, no access to the different ingredients, fruits and vegetables which are only available in some places in the world. We already get used to it that even in the shops like Tesco or Dunnes Stores we can find so many Thai and eastern as well as central European food mainly from those counties, where most immigrant come from. Nowadays we can get some type of food already made abroad and the brought to Ireland rather made in Ireland, just as a proof of authenticity. For this reason now people in Ireland can buy for example frozen pizza already made in Italy or other dishes made in Europe. That is why people living in Ireland have such a great choice of food and spices due to immigration. So for this reasons I definitely can say that immigration has positive impact on food choice, and community development about different cosines in Ireland (http://benefitof.net/benefits, 11-10-10), ( www.europeancuisines.com, 11-10-10) .
However everything in this world has negative side, immigration in Ireland is not an exception. Its unfortunately has negative side as well as positive. First off all not all immigrants are good people and not all of them brings benefits to the county, sometimes its opposite when good people who came from different counties trying to implement and develop something new, they just making it harder to happen. Secondly immigration as I mention earlier increase population which have negative side as well, because of food in Ireland, not depending on cousins, mainly produced from Irish products. In other words “the relation between grooving population and ability to feed it at an acceptable level is one of the most important also one of the most controversial current issues (Peter Atkins & Ian Bowler, Food in Society, 2001, pg.107)
Also if we have a look from the food tradition point of view all immigrants and their influence on the country in this case food in Ireland, can reflect to the wrong side as well. For example if people will get used to foreign food and eating culture to much, then after a while, maybe after next generation of families, people will forget they tradition, their food , their culture. Population would be mixed that much, that all food would be equal each other. It could happen that if someone living in Ireland wants to try Irish food, they would have to look for an Irish restaurant.
Another disadvantage from food choice point of view in Ireland with regard of growing population and food places, that in these days we can see so many different restaurant, take away, and other fast food restaurant they increase competition between them self. Increase in competition can result to price reduction which has very big impact what people can actually chose to eat. When prices are low, nation starts eating more outside, and mainly they would chose fast food in everyday life, because of time limit, time they have and because it is most convenient for them. These things on time can be one of the factors increasing obesity, especially among the younger population in Ireland. And that’s what happens in nowadays, if we have a look in the newspaper or TV, it is a many debates going on about this. That is why now people trying to implement more healthier way of living, they helping people to improve through the education and media.
Immigration, as everything has its own advantages and disadvantages, in this case I am talking about food choice in Ireland. Immigration can actually benefit population more, if we just know how to take advantage of this, without hamming our self in some or other way.
Immigration may not have many benefits to other sectors of the county, but in food sector it does. In these days most people already are familiar about different cousins and cultures. They know more about the different food and can make more choices with regard to the food.
If we have look in to the hotel industry, many hotels has restaurant which serves different type of food from all over the world. Immigration spread in to that kind of level that everyone especially hospitality has to keep them self’s on top of this, to make sure they can provide the food choice to the quests. For example hotel I worked in, they has a restaurant with different menus and different themes. It was mixed French and Italian restaurant, but guests could find food they like and from different countries cosines as well, like Thai, Indian food as well as halal and many others just to satisfy quest need and expectations.
For a conclusion of my essay on immigration and its impact on food choice in Ireland, I have been talking about different advantages and disadvantages from different prospective of immigration and its impact on food choice and changes that immigration brigs to society. Also I have been discussing population reaction and changes with regards to immigration and changes in food culture in Ireland.
And also I would suggest to every person always take positive experience form situation, but however even if changes are very good, do not let them to take over your own tradition and coulter either it is from food prospective or not. It is always good to know and experience different food and cultures, but also I would be great to teach others of Irish culture, food and tradition. So everybody would learn from each other but would not take over each other.
References:
Peter Atkins & Ian Bowler (2001) Food in Society, economy, culture, geography. London
C.Michael Hall, Liz Sharples, Richard Mitchell, Niki Macionis, Brock Cambourne (2003) Food tourism around the world. www.catebabel.com, 9-10-10 www/cso.ie/newsivents 9-10-10 http://benefitof.net/benefits, 11-10-10 www.europeancuisines.com 11-10-10 www.rte.ie./news/2008/0826/population 9-10-10
From Spuds to Spices (2006) From Spuds to Spyces
Linnane (2000) Irish cousine.
