“Okus doma”: integracija azilanata protkana transnacionalnim procesima i promicanjem kulinarskih tradicija

Uvod

Suvremeno useljavanje izbjeglica i tražitelja azila1 u države Europske unije (EU) danas je jedno od ključnih društvenih pitanja, posebice kada je riječ o njihovoj integraciji. Od početka 2006. do kraja prvog kvartala 2016. godine Republika Hrvatska odobrila je međunarodnu zaštitu za 176 osoba2 te se time obvezala da će im omogućiti određena ekonomska, socijalna i kulturna prava (npr. socijalnu pomoć, zdravstvo, obrazovanje, učenje hrvatskog jezika, povijesti i kulture, osigurati stanovanje, zaposlenje…).3Međutim, dosadašnja stvarnost Hrvatske, prije svega kao iseljeničke i tranzitne zemlje, s visokom homogenošću društva, slabim ekonomskim prilikama, visokom nezaposlenošću i ograničenim mogućnostima socijalne države, a uz nedostatak planiranih politika integracije (priznatih) izbjeglica, dovodi osobe pod zaštitom u poziciju društvene izolacije, siromaštva i nemogućnosti rješavanja osnovnih egzistencijalnih pitanja u dugoročnijoj perspektivi (Baričević 2013:112).

U europskom se kontekstu o integraciji imigranata u zemlje useljavanja počelo pisati kasnih 1970-ih i ranih 1980-ih godina. U međuvremenu su različite države osmišljavale integracijske politike (Usp.Geddes 2003;Brochmann i Hammar 1999) kojima se uređuju načini uključivanja imigranata u društvo primitka i istodobno pokušavaju izbjeći dotadašnji procesi asimilacije i segregacije. Polazilo se od zamisli da imigrante iz drugih kultura, što uključuje i drukčiju jezičnu i vjersku pripadnost, treba povezati u cjelinu uz uzajamno prilagođavanje i prihvaćanje. Pritom se kretalo od načela kulturnog pluralizma (Brubaker 1992;Heršak 1998:84). Sukladno s imigracijskim politikama te s (ne)pokazateljima njihove primjene, rastao je broj znanstvenih promišljanja što sve integracija treba uključivati (npr. Favell, Geddes, Penninx, Heckmann i Schnapper, Hollifield itd). Pored tri najvažnije dimenzije integracijskog procesa: pravno-političke, društveno-ekonomske i kulturno-religijske (Penninx 2004), izdvojile bismo i interakcijsku (društveni odnosi i mreže) i identifikacijsku (pripadanje) dimenziju u kojima je naglasak na subjektivizaciji integracijskog procesa, tj. percepciji integracije s polazišta samog migranta (Usp. Esser 2001:16, premaPenninx i Garcés-Mascareńas 2016:13).

Dakako, trebamo imati na umu da useljenici nisu jedna homogena cjelina i da se suvremena društva itekako razlikuju od kulturnih i političkih ideala nacionalnog kontejnera te da suvremene države ne podrazumijevaju kulturnu homogenost. Osim toga, dosadašnja su istraživanja pokazala da je za uključivanje imigranata u društvo primitka nužan dvosmjeran proces u kojem se putem interakcije imigranata i domicilnog stanovništva prihvaćaju i razmjenjuju različiti kulturni sadržaji i poštuju različitosti (Goodman 2010), te da je nužno međudjelovanje institucionalnih struktura i samih migranata (Brubaker 1992).

Cilj je ovog rada na jednoj studiji slučaja,4 kolektivu Okus doma, prikazati pokušaj i (ne)uspješnost integracije azilanata i tražitelja azila u hrvatsko društvo. U radu ćemo ukratko prikazati ideju i projekt koji je bio u pozadini formiranja kolektiva Okus doma koji su razvili aktivisti iz nevladine organizacije Centar za mirovne studije (CMS) 5 iz Zagreba zajedno s izbjeglicama i tražiteljima azila. Fokus rada jesu življena iskustva azilanata: što za njih znači participacija u ovom kolektivu, otvara li im ona put ka socijalizaciji, omogućuje li im egzistenciju, odnosno možemo li i u kojoj mjeri njihovo aktivno sudjelovanje u Okusu doma smatrati socioekonomskom, kulturnom, interakcijskom i identifikacijskom dimenzijom integracije. S druge strane, propitujemo koliko ovaj kolektiv omogućuje imigrantima življenje u transnacionalnom prostoru, koliko priprema i promocija hrane iz doma svoga podrijetla pridonosi osjećaju usporednog bivanja na dva mjesta. Na kraju, kroz rad propitujemo izdvojena mišljenja građana o azilantima kroz medijsku analizu diskursa njihovih komentara na internetskim objavama o inicijativi Okus doma.

Metodologija

Istraživanje je provođeno od listopada 2015. do svibnja 2016. godine.6 Temelji se na etnološkoj i kulturnoantropološkoj kvalitativnoj metodologiji: na intervjuima, sudjelovanju s promatranjem te analizi medijskog diskursa.

Nakon neformalnih razgovora sa sudionicima brojnih događanja na kojima se prezentirala hrana iz Okusa doma (npr. Dan izbjeglica, Dan migranata, doček Nove godine...), ozbiljniji istraživački koraci bili su na dvjema radionicama kuhanja, na kojima je cilj bio, uz sudjelovanje s promatranjem, napraviti etnografsko bilježenje7 i dogovoriti pojedinačne intervjue s izbjeglicama-kuharima i polaznicima. Cilj je bio promatrati azilante i konzumente hrane na promocijama, polaznike tečaja, propitati stavove prisutnih o poslužiteljima, kuharima i azilantima, o hrani, te indirektno propitati stavove domicilnog stanovništva prema Drugima, odnosno strancima.

Pomoću polustrukturiranih i strukturiranih intervjua zabilježile smo četiri življena izbjeglička, integracijska i kuharska iskustva. Cilj je bio saznati duljinu boravka u Hrvatskoj, svakodnevne prakse pripremanja hrane, razloge uključenosti u Okus doma, odabir hrane koju pripremaju, po čijem receptu, itd. Migranti su starosti od 25 do 37 godina, obaju spolova, različitog obrazovanja (većina je završila srednju školu, nekima je prisilan odlazak iz zemlje podrijetla prekinuo fakultetsko obrazovanje). Razgovori su vođeni na engleskom, francuskom i hrvatskom jeziku, odnosno na jeziku koji su odabrali kazivači. Polaznike radionica dodatno smo intervjuirale i propitale o razlozima i iskustvima boravka na njima. 8Također smo intervjuirale jednu od inicijatorica ove inicijative, Eminu Bužinkić iz CMS-a, te Zinku Mujkić, suradnicu i koordinatoricu zadruge Okus doma. Istraživanje smo provele koristeći etnografiju pojedinačnog (Abu-Lughod 1991) i strategije utemeljene teorije (Charmaz 2011) s ciljem razvijanja istraživačkih pitanja, a ne njihova linearnog “potvrđivanja” (Emerson et al. 1995).  

Tijekom istraživanja pratile smo medijsku produkciju koja je poslužila za realizaciju dvostruke etnografske prakse (Wittel 2004:19). Prema njoj, jedna se sastoji u tome da etnograf sudjeluje, tj. istodobno je prisutan u društvenoj situaciji koju promatra, a druga je svrha razotkrivanje konteksta, pa time i kompleksnosti, pri čemu potencijal etnografske metode leži u onome što Geertz naziva “gustim opisom” (Geertz 1998). Cilj je kroz rad predstaviti kompleksnost recepcije inicijative za integraciju izbjeglica u hrvatsko društvo; kompleksnost koja proizlazi iz dva načina pristupanja istraživanju ove inicijative: s jedne strane, to je promatranje sa sudjelovanjem na prezentacijama hrane i na radionicama kuhanja, intervjuiranje njezinih polaznika i kuhara, a s druge, opis diskursa članaka i analiza komentara ispod članaka objavljenih na internetu.

Nadalje, cilj nam je bio i istražiti omogućuje li kolektiv Okus doma izbjeglicama zadržavanje kulturnih odnosno prehrambenih navika, promicanje vlastite kulture i samim time umanjivanje distinkcije između države podrijetla i mjesta useljavanja. Za to nam je pomogla transnacionalna paradigma u okviru koje se promatraju migrantske prakse i društveni odnosi koji nadilaze državne granice odnosno kojima migranti povezuju države/mjesta rođenja/življenja i sadašnjeg/novog boravka (usp.Levitt i Glick Schiller 2004;Faist et al. 2013). Transnacionalni socijalni prostori i polja podrazumijevaju da, unatoč velikim prostornim udaljenostima i granicama zemalja, određene društvene interakcije pokazuju tendenciju globalnog intenziviranja (Glick Schiller et al. 1992). Kroz ovaj rad propitujemo ulogu kolektiva Okusa doma u stvaranju transnacionalnih, tj. transkontinentalnih društvenih prostora.9U brojnim radovima posvećenim transnacionalnim praksama hrana pripremljena po poznatim receptima, nošenje namirnica i gotovih proizvoda od “kuće” do novih domova, pokazali su se neizostavnim segmentima (Povrzanović Frykman 2010;Povrzanović Frykman i Humbracht 2013;Petridou 2001;Gadže i Rajković Iveta 2015). Budući da hrana stimulira gotovo sva osjetila i tako rekreira iskustva doma gotovo u potpunosti, u ovom je radu promatramo u funkciji kontinuiteta i povezanosti s domom. Zbog sposobnosti da rekonstruira osjetni totalitet doma i onoga poznatog, istražujemo može li hrana pomoći u simboličkoj obnovi svijeta koji postaje fragmentiran promjenom zemlje stanovanja (Petridou 2001). U dosadašnjim istraživanjima pokazalo se da je hrana mnogo više od prehrambenog proizvoda jer ljudi biraju, kuhaju i serviraju određene obroke zato što pomoću njih evociraju sjećanja, obilježavaju važne datume i prezentiraju svoj identitet (Gadže i Rajković Iveta 2015). Pored toga, ljudi iz istoga društvenog, tj. kulturnog kruga imaju jednake asocijacije na određeni tip hrane, stajališta o njoj, jednaka znanja i prehrambene navike, što sve čini kulturu prehrane (Contreras i Gracia Arnaiz 2005:37). Migrantske grupe ne zaboravljaju prehrambene navike jer hrana ima važnu biološku, simboličku i afektivnu ulogu. Kroz rad želimo saznati pomaže li hrana sačuvati sjećanja, bude li recepti i jela pripremljena na poznati način osjetila koja potiču prenošenje kulture, te ima li pojedina hrana emotivnu ulogu kod imigranata (Ibid.).

NASTANAK KOLEKTIVA OKUS DOMA

Kolektiv Okusa doma nastao je u okviru projekta Kvalitetnim rješenjima k integraciji izbjeglica.10  Naše se istraživanje bavi Okusom doma u značenju koje je prezentirano na njihovoj Facebook stranici11

koja je i najkorištenije sredstvo njihove online komunikacije sa širom javnosti. Na njoj se Okus doma predstavlja kao socijalna zadruga koju vode izbjeglice, migranti i volonteri, ali istodobno je Okus doma i grupa pojedinaca koji su se okupili oko zajedničkih interesa u hrani i kuhanju. U publikaciji pod naslovom Okus doma (Bužinkić 2014:s. n.) piše da je Okus doma “istraživačko-gastronomsko-kulinarski projekt koji nas upoznaje s kulturom, običajima i društvima podrijetla izbjeglica u Hrvatskoj bilježeći njihova sjećanja na dom, mirise i okuse njihove kuhinje. Ovaj je eksperiment razmjena životnih priča i kulinarskih umijeća izbjeglica i ljudi iz Hrvatske.” 12

Iz intervjua s Eminom Bužinkić saznali smo da je Okus doma nastao po uzoru na slične ideje realizirane drugdje u svijetu, primjerice u Velikoj Britaniji i Australiji, i njihove tzv. azilantske ili izbjegličke kuharice, u kojima je, s jedne strane, riječ o kuhinjama kao prostorima okupljanja i kuhanja kao takvog (public kitchen events), a s druge o tiskanim zbirkama koje su okupljale recepte izbjeglica, a cilj im je bio senzibilizirati ljude da kušaju jela drugih kultura, upoznaju ih i razbijaju predrasude o izbjeglicama. Volonteri i aktivisti okupljeni u CMS-u su od 2003. godine počeli raditi s izbjeglicama, razgovarati s njima o svakodnevici, problemima, njihovim snovima, itd. Osnova uspješne komunikacije bila je izgraditi povjerenje. To se radilo tako da su članovi CMS-a i izbjeglice jedni drugima kuhali kave, družili se, a potom počeli i skupljati izbjegličke priče i recepte. Od 2006. do 2014. sakupili su trideset recepata i priča, od kojih je dvadeset objavljeno u publikacijiOkus doma (2014). Prema riječima E. Bužinkić:

“Okus doma nije samo dokumentiranje priča, Okus doma je zapravo prostor u kojemu su ljudi bili spremni na dijalog jedni s drugima, […] učiti jedni od drugih i gdje smo zapravo kao neku vrstu artikulacije onoga što oni jesu izabrali kuhanje, podučavanje jezika i neku vrstu interkulturne razmjene.”

U okviru Okusa doma do sada su provedene mnoge radionice i promotivne aktivnosti na kojima imigranti13pripremaju i prezentiraju hranu iz države podrijetla. Ta su događanja organizirale udruge civilnog društva, škole i međunarodne organizacije (npr. UNICEF, UNHCR, Crveni križ…). Nakon što je registrirana zadruga u ožujku 2016., kolektiv Okus doma nudi i uslugu dostave hrane. Naručitelji su uglavnom nevladine organizacije, društveno-kulturne ustanove, udruge aktivne na području rada s mladima, te međunarodne organizacije, kazala nam je koordinatorica zadruge Zinka Mujkić. Važno je napomenuti da se zadruga uspjela registrirati te opremiti kuhinju kroz crowdfunding kampanju kojom su se prikupila sredstva (ukupno 19 000 američkih dolara) od građana, a koji su zauzvrat dobili razne poklone (engl. perks), kao što je sudjelovanje na radionici/tečaju kuhanja koji je vodio kolektiv Okus doma. Naše istraživanje temelji se na sudjelovanju s promatranjem na dvije takve radionice.

RADIONICE KUHANJA OKUS DOMA

Prva radionica kuhanja na kojoj smo sudjelovale održala se u subotu, 13. veljače 2016. godine na Opatovini u Zagrebu, u unajmljenom prostoru Kuhaone, a druga 19. ožujka 2016. u Centru za kulturu prehrane u Zagrebu. Na prvoj radionici bilo je šest radnih timova: po jedan ili dva kuhara s dva ili tri polaznika. Kuhari su bili imigranti, azilanti, dok je jedna osoba bila u postupku traženja zaštite. S obzirom na podrijetlo kuhara, kuhala su se etiopijska, libijska, nigerijska, pakistanska, sirijska i senegalska jela.

Radionice možemo opisati kao spoj finih mirisa i okusa. Kroz zvukove muzike koja je dopirala s radija, miješali su se smijeh i razgovori (na hrvatskom, engleskom i francuskom jeziku). Čulo se udaranje dlanova po stolovima, pljeskanje dlanova o dlan (give me five). Polaznici su se upoznavali, razmjenjivali iskustva o kuhinjama i putovanjima. Dok je od kuhanja temperatura u kuhinji rasla, fini, poznati i manje poznati mirisi hrane i začina (korijandera, kima, kumina, kajenskog papra…) širili su se prostorijom. Bilo je tu mnogo dozivanja, traženja sastojaka ili pribora za kuhanje; ljudi su pričali i/ili ispitivali jedni druge, probali hranu koja se kuhala. Lupali su kuhinjski pribori, šuškale vrećice sa začinima, klopotale po kuhinjskom podu papuče jedne od kuharica. Jednom je kuharu kipjelo jelo, a druga je kuharica greškom sipala previše soli u svoj lonac; no sve je, na kraju, spašeno. Ovaj kratak gusti opis (Geertz 1998) samo je dio atmosfere na radionicama koje su bile vrlo opuštene; u prijateljskom raspoloženju lako je bilo sa svima stupiti u kontakt i pričati, a tri sata kuhanja vrlo su brzo prošla. Na kraju su svi prisutni kušali i uživali u pripremljenoj hrani te bili sretni što su sudjelovali na radionici. Kada se sve pojelo, malo se i zaplesalo, na etiopijsku i libijsku glazbu puštenu preko Youtubea. Nakon toga, većina nas je otišla i na dodatno druženje i piće u obližnji kafić.

Motivi dolaska polaznika radionice bili su šaroliki. Ana (35 godina, agronom, rođena u Münchenu, živi u Zagrebu) otprije poznaje jednog azilanta, zna kakve poteškoće ima u Hrvatskoj, posebno kod pronalaska posla i zato je došla “financijski poduprijeti ovu hvalevrijednu inicijativu”. Marija (32 godine) radi na jednom projektu nevladine organizacije u Čakovcu, kojem je cilj poboljšati uvjete života u Hrvatskoj ljudi koji su državljani trećih zemalja, a dio projekta odnosi se na potporu Okusu doma: sudjelovali su u opremanju njihove kuhinje i prikupili još neka druga sredstva. Ona je povela i tri svoje kolegice volonterke na radionicu. Ivan (32 godine, informatičar, živi u Zagrebu) je došao sa suprugom, a sudjelovanje na radionici su im darovali prijatelji za Božić jer znaju da vole kuhati i putovati. Lana (22 godine, studira u Zagrebu) svoj je motiv dolaska ovako opisala: “Cimerica me je pitala hoću li volontirati na radionici […], a kada mi je objasnila o čemu se radi, odmah mi se svidjela ta ideja da upoznam nove ljudi i nove kulture. A i kad sam tamo došla i kad sam čula da je Samba iz Senegala, bila je prilika da malo pričam francuski.”

Dojmovi svih intervjuiranih polaznika radionice bili su vrlo pozitivni, što su potvrdili i u dodatnim intervjuima:

“Atmosferu bih opisala kao opuštenu, zabavnu, prijateljsku… kao kad sa prijateljima kuhaš doma. Jako lijepo. I mislim da je 'moj' kuhar bio najbolji. Ne znam zašto, ali je zbilja bilo zabavno kuhati i družiti se s njime. Jako zanimljiva ličnost […] voljela bih to ponoviti […] jer mi je zbilja bilo lijepo i zabavno iskustvo, neočekivano opušteno, dijelom jer mi se sviđa poduprijeti ljude u tome što rade. Rad, imati posao, a time i financijsku sigurnost je ipak neka osnova svega. Ne možemo živjeti od zraka i sunca. Ovo su sve mladi i radišni ljudi za koje sam skoro pa sigurna da teško dobivaju priliku na našem tržištu rada. Treba ih podržati u tome da rade nešto.” (Ana)

“… cijela stvar je bila odlična jer je bila prijateljska atmosfera. Dio zadatka je bilo da pričamo s njima i da se družimo; činilo mi se da su svi jako dobre volje, da nije bilo problema u komunikaciji […]. Bili smo jako dobro prihvaćeni i cijela ta priča oko hrane je vrlo prijateljska, stvara obiteljsku atmosferu – otvara prostor za dijalog. Hrana je, čini mi se, sredstvo koje najbrže povezuje ljude. Bilo mi je jako ugodno, lijepo i treba ih podržati […]. Žele otvoriti zadrugu – prostor da se samozaposle – što je jako bitno – ne žele biti na teret drugih u Hrvatskoj već žele tu ostvariti svoju egzistenciju – to je nešto što bih i privatno podržala.” (Marija)

“Super zanimljivo je bilo, naučio sam nova jela, družio se s novim ljudima, upoznao nove ljude – jednostavno volim takve stvari […]. Sviđa mi se inicijativa, nalaze ljudima posao, pri tome imamo priliku upoznati nešto novo …” (Ivan)

“Bilo je interaktivno i, budući su ljudi s kojima smo kuhali dosta otvoreni i vole pričati, bilo je stvarno jedno jako lijepo iskustvo. Nisam imala baš velika očekivanja, mislila sam čak da će mi možda biti malo dosadno… bila sam malo skeptična, no to se sve promijenilo […]. To je jako dobar način da se azilanti pokušaju integrirati… I mislim da je to napravljeno na najbolji mogući način jer je glavni instrument korišten upravo hrana – hrana je nešto najbliže ljudima… Kada dvije osobe nemaju ništa zajedničko iz dvije različite kulture, hrana bi im mogla biti zajednička.” (Lana)

Iako su motivacije dolaska na radionice (želja za pomoći, volonterizam, poklon, imigrantsko iskustvo…) i predznanja o imigrantima, izbjeglicama i tražiteljima azila bila različita, prema navedenim iskazima vidimo da su svi polaznici nakon radionica bili iznimno zadovoljni jer su ugodno i zanimljivo proveli dan, stekli nova iskustva u prijateljskom okruženju, učili o drugim kulturama, konzumirali novu hranu, ali su i doprinijeli integraciji azilanata u hrvatsko društvo, prihvaćajući njihovu hranu/kulturu i dajući im mogućnost da kuhaju/rade. Međutim, ne možemo zanemariti činjenicu da neki od komentara, premda pozitivni, u pozadini sadrže diskurs da “te” ljude (dakle: njih, druge, drugačije) treba podržati i da oni ne žele biti “na teret” Hrvatskoj, da je lijepo da “im” nalaze posao (neki drugi, a ne azilanti sami sebi), te da je ovo dobar primjer da se azilanti “pokušaju integrirati”. Izraz “pokušaj integriranja” a priori asocira na nešto čemu je ishod neizvjestan.Ghassan Hage (2000) piše o fantazijama Bijele nadmoći u multikulturnom društvu i dekonstruira odnose moći koji se nalaze u pozadini ponašanja i govora onih koji se smatraju upravljačima nacionalnog prostora, bilo da su oni nacionalistički ili multikulturno i kozmopolitski nastrojeni. Upravljače nacionalnog prostora nalazimo i u pozadini diskursa polaznika radionica Okusa doma: domicilno stanovništvo jest to koje sebe smatra pozvanim dati (neformalno) odobrenje azilantima da rade, da pokažu da nisu na teret državi (naciji) i da se pokušaju uklopiti u “naše” društvo. PremaHageu (Ibid. 45), postoje najmanje dva načina pripadanja nacionalnom domu: prvi je pasivno pripadanje, a drugi vladajuće pripadanje. Pasivno pripadanje pokazuje onaj tko sebe smatra da “pripada naciji”, u smislu da je njezin dio pa time i očekuje imati pravo korištenja nacionalnih resursa, pravo „uklapanja u naciju” ili se u njoj “osjeća kod kuće”. “Pripadam naciji” jest otprilike stav takvih upravljača nacionalnog prostora. S druge strane, vladajuće pripadanje (koje nije ekvivalent formalnoj upravi države ili vlade) osjeća onaj koji vjeruje da ima pravo nad nacijom što uključuje vjerovanje da ima vlasništvo nad pravom da doprinese (čak i samo svojim legitimnim mišljenje o unutarnjoj i vanjskoj politici nacije) upravljanju tom istom nacijom tako da ona ostaje “njegov/njezin dom”. “Ovo je moja nacija” jest, prema Hageu, formulacija onih koji osjećaju vladajuće pripadanje naciji. Premda “tolerantni”14 i prijateljski raspoloženi prema azilantima i tražiteljima azila, izjave polaznika pokazuju da oni govore s pozicije pasivnog pripadanja nacionalnom prostoru koji nas je okruživao dok smo kuhali s azilantima i tražiteljima azila na radionicama Okusa doma.

Kuhari i polaznici radionice Okus doma, fotografirao: Igor Bezinović, 13. 2. 2016.

MIGRANTSKA ISKUSTVA I JELA KUHARA OKUSA DOMA

Svrha sudjelovanja s promatranjem nije bilo samo promatrati radionicu iz blizine nego biti i u interakciji s onima koje istražujemo, postavljati im pitanja i stjecati uvid u živote koji se otkrivaju pred nama (Hine 2004:33). Na radionicama su dogovoreni pojedinačni intervjui i s kuharima: Akinom iz Nigerije, Kamranom iz Pakistana, Hayom iz Sirije i Sambom iz Senegala. Njihova izbjeglička, integracijska i kuharska življena iskustva donosimo u nastavku.15

Akin

Akin ima 30 godina, iz Nigerije je, iz koje je bio prisiljen otići zbog političkih razloga i opasnosti za život. Prema njegovim riječima, on u Hrvatskoj, za razliku od Nigerije, može spavati “zatvorenih očiju”. U Hrvatsku je došao 24. prosinca 2011. i zatražio azil koji je potom i dobio. Odmalena je naučio kuhati i hrana je nešto što mu najviše nedostaje od kuće. Dio kolektiva Okus doma postao je već krajem 2012. godine. Nakon što je s polaznicima Mirovnih studija podijelio svoj recept i migrantsku priču, počeo je i kuhati na prezentacijama koje su organizirali.

“Okus doma je slično tome kao da dođeš u jedan veliki hotel i kažu ti: 'Oh, mi imamo međunarodna jela' – to znači da [Okus doma, op. a.] predstavlja različitost. Ljudi uvijek trebaju probati nešto novo, steći više iskustva, saznati ili približiti se... drugim kulturama […]. Za mene, to je stvarno integracija […]. Kada ima hrane, kada se hrana kuha, kada se stvori neki glazbeni događaj, kada ljudi pokušaju predstaviti što jedu i što rade – u zajednici kao što je Hrvatska to stvara manje rasizma i manje svih tih loših stvari. Mislim da smo dotakli umove mnogih ljudi na način da su počeli razmišljati da su migranti nešto dobro […] ove mi aktivnosti znače mnogo […] pomažu u nastojanju da unesemo ravnotežu u našu situaciju, a ne da nas se smatra strancima ...”

Za radionice Okusa doma Akin obično priprema jollof rižu s rajčicama iz Yorube, crvenim paprom i mesom. Ovo se jelo sprema u posebnim prilikama na jugozapadnom dijelu Nigerije: “Ako ne kuhaš jollof rižu kada imaš neko događanje, ono neće biti kompletno. Ljudi će o tome pričati: 'Možda su siromašni, možda ne znaju što rade […]. To je jednostavno jelo, koje nikada ne jedeš sam. Ako ga jedeš sam, to će te jelo umarati, osjećat će se osamljeno i depresivno'.” Budući da Akin u Zagrebu ne nalazi potrebne začine ogiri i shombo, umjesto njih koristi drugu vrstu papra, što jelu daje drugačiji okus. To mu ponekad smeta i stoga mu ih prijatelji iz CMS-a kupuju u Beču u tropical shopu u kojem pronalaze i druge namirnice iz afričkih zemalja. Objašnjava da, budući da je azilant, ne želi imati kontakte s Nigerijom, u smislu da mu netko od tamo šalje namirnice, i kaže: “Jedem ono što vidim.” No, nastoji ne jesti sam, jer mu je to strano.

“Većinu svog života u Nigeriji jeo sam sa svojom obitelji, sa svojim prijateljima. Ali ovdje, na početku, osjećao sam se usamljeno, vrlo, vrlo usamljeno. Jeo sam sâm i nisam osjećao što jedem. Nisam osjećao okus hrane. To nema smisla. Jedem zbog samog hranjenja i kako ne bih obolio. Kasnije, nakon što sam bio u Zagrebu jednu godinu, pokušao sam osnovati udrugu i mnogo je ljudi dolazilo k meni. I sada se sjećam da sam uvijek kuhao kada bi netko dolazio kod mene […]. Uvijek kuham. Jer to je to […]. Sada sam usvojio ovu kulturu odavde, da jedeš sam. No nije dobro jesti burek, jesti pizzu na cesti – to nije zdravo, nije normalno. Nikad, nikad, nikad nije dobro jesti na taj način […]. Znaš, hrana znači mnogo, ne radi se tu samo o jelu. Jesti hranu [s drugima, op. a.] znači mnogo – ima u tome i duhovnosti. Ali zašto jesti sam? U Africi se kaže da si poput životinje ako jedeš sam. U Africi promoviramo harmoniju između ljudi, a onda i poštovanje.”

Iz ovoga je kazivanja vidljivo da ovaj azilant ne želi imati kontakte s državom podrijetla, u smislu da mu netko od tamo nešto šalje, i da se želi integrirati u novo društvo, poziva prijatelje u goste i priprema hranu za njih. Novi prijatelji umanjuju mu osjećaj usamljenosti. Kao što je nekada hranu dijelio s obitelji i prijateljima iz Nigerije, sada to radi s prijateljima u Hrvatskoj. No ipak, hrana koju priprema za nove prijatelje – njezini okusi, mirisi i začini koje dobiva na poklon – podsjećaju ga na dom i obitelj. Za sada mu je kuhanje hobi koji mu pomaže u društvenoj integraciji, a kuhanje s Okusom doma donijelo mu je i neke promjene stavova koje je imao nakon prvih mjeseci boravka u Hrvatskoj. Kada je počeo kuhati, 2012. godine, ljudi su pojeli sve što je skuhao i dolazili bi po još, što ga je ugodno iznenadilo (“Hrvati jedu nigerijsku hranu – pa to je super!”) i što je doprinijelo i interakcijskoj dimenziji integracije. Uvjeren je da se hranom mogu mijenjati mišljenja i upoznavati prijatelji. Hrana je utjecala i da se njegove predodžbe o Hrvatskoj, kao zatvorenoj zemlji ne previše sklonoj “drugačijima”, promijene. Vjeruje da je Okus doma:

“… projekt koji će potvrditi Zagreb i Hrvatsku kao zemlju integracije. Tako će […] svi znati da Hrvatska ima izbjeglice koje su osnovale catering i potom restoran. Zahvaljujući ovom projektu, mi koji smo došli možemo pokazati bogatstvo naše kulture, naš način života. Ovo nam je prilika da pokažemo što smo! Ja sam tako sretan da, ako radim i deset poslova, a treba učiniti nešto za Okus doma, odmah ću napustiti sve i doći! […] Iz ovog će izaći puno dobrih priča. Na jelovniku će biti svega. Tako i treba biti, to miješanje kultura. Okus doma je jedina prava integracija koja postoji u Hrvatskoj. Integracija, uključivanje u društvo u kojem neće biti rasizma. Genijalna je to stvar koja se dogodila izbjeglicama” (Pavić 2016).

Kamran

Kamran ima 27 godina, podrijetlom je iz Pakistana, a krajem 2014. godine dobio je azil u Hrvatskoj. Za Okus doma saznao je preko prijatelja iz Nigerije. Od 2015. povremeno kuha za Okus doma. Profesionalni je igrač kriketa, no često je kuhao s ujakom vlasnikom restorana u Pakistanu. Nema diplomu kuhara jer u Pakistanu ona ne treba. Prema receptu mame i ujaka, na radionici je pripremio kormu i kheer, tipična pakistanska jela. Ne priprema ih inače za sebe u Hrvatskoj jer su to skupa jela, a ni sve sastojke ne može tu naći (npr. mješavinu začina korma masalu). Pripremajući na radionici kormu, upotrijebio je garam masalu koju su nabavili organizatori radionice. Objasnio je da u Pakistanu koriste mnogo začina od kojih tijekom kuhanja cijela kuća miriše: “To je prekrasan miris, to je stvarno lijepo, a ovdje je to nemoguće imati.”

U Zagrebu uglavnom jede hrvatsku hranu jer za pripremu pakistanske hrane nije lako naći potrebne sastojke, a i njihova narudžba od roditelja iz Pakistana bila bi preskupa. Izdvojio je jedino laku i jeftinu pripremu pakistanskog kruha, za što sastojci postoje u Hrvatskoj. Kada ga jede, osjeća se kao kod kuće. Ističe da se dobro osjeća i kada ga priprema, podsjeća ga na obitelj i dane koje je proveo u rodnoj zemlji. Na izbjegličkom putu živio je u Grčkoj i Makedoniji. U Grčkoj je kuhao na isti način kao u Pakistanu jer je ondje mogao kupiti začine i ostale sastojke. Smatra da bi se u Hrvatskoj bolje hranio da ima posao jer bi tada od prijatelja iz Grčke naručivao začine i sastojke za spremanje pakistanske i azijske hrane koju je navikao jesti: “Azijska hrana je ukusna, nije, kao ovdje, bezukusna. Koristimo mnogo začina, a začini su dobri za zdravlje.” Tijekom istraživanja koje smo provodile, Kamranova su se razmišljanja o Okusu doma mijenjala, od skeptičnih prema jako pozitivnim – ova potonja bila su u vrijeme intenzivnijeg kuhanja za Okus doma i sudjelovanja na raznim događanjima gdje je Okus doma bio prisutan. Ipak, uvijek je izražavao želju da s njima stalno kuha i da mu to postane i izvor dohotka. Na njegovu je primjeru do izražaja došla važnost interakcije s domicilnim stanovništvom koja je bila posredovana preko aktivnosti provođenih u organizaciji Okusa doma. Intenzitet interakcije uvjetovao je i Kamranova raspoloženja želi li ostati u Hrvatskoj ili otići iz zemlje. Što je interakcija s lokalnom zajednicom bila veća, on je bio zadovoljniji svojim životom u Hrvatskoj, a vrijedilo je i suprotno: manje interakcije pa time i više neaktivnosti, značilo je za njega da bi trebao otići iz Hrvatske.

Haya

Haya ima 37 godina i podrijetlom je iz Sirije. U Hrvatsku je došla u rujnu 2015. godine kako bi zatražila azil i osigurala bolju budućnost za djecu. Prije tri godine boravila je u Hrvatskoj jer je sa suprugom Libanoncem imala restoran u Zagrebu. Sada u Zagrebu živi s troje djece (kći ima 15 godina, a dva sina blizanca 10 godina), a suprug joj radi u Moskvi. Nada se da će dobiti azil i ostati u Hrvatskoj. Za Okus doma saznala je na jednoj prezentaciji o Siriji i pridružila im se. Motiv uključenja bio je što pomažu izbjeglicama, htjela je biti od pomoći, a voli i kuhati i voli atmosferu koja se stvara kada ljudi kuhaju. Na radionici je pripremila sirijsku salatu fattoushe te shish barak s rižom, prema maminu receptu. To su jela koja i inače često sprema obitelji u Zagrebu. Oba su jela vrlo omiljena u Siriji, ali i na cijelom Bliskom istoku. Kod pripreme je koristila začin sumac koji je donijela iz Sirije i arapski kruh koji je kupila u orijentalnoj trgovini u Zagrebu koju drže njezini prijatelji iz Sirije. Haya u Zagrebu kuha na isti način na koji je kuhala u Siriji i sve sastojke kupuje u Zagrebu. Istaknula je da njezinu djecu i nju ta hrana podsjeća na lijepe uspomene na život u Siriji. Osim začina, iz Sirije je donijela je i druge sastojke za kuhanje te domaće proizvode, npr. kishk (slično hrvatskoj zimnici). Kazala je da će nakon što potroši zalihe kishka, tražiti od roditelja iz Sirije da joj ga pošalju u Zagreb.

Voljela bi biti profesionalna kuharica, no za to joj je potrebna diploma. Htjela bi kuhati sirijsku i libanonsku hranu, no svjesna je da takva hrana u Zagrebu nije tražena. Međutim, u usporedbi s prethodnim boravkom u Zagrebu, sada smatra da se ljudi više otvaraju prema novim kuhinjama. Navela je da tomu doprinosi i Okus doma, što smatra korisnom inicijativom koja stvara i dobru atmosferu između azilanata i domicilnog stanovništva. Osjeća se dobro u Hrvatskoj, tu je sigurna, smatra da ljudi prihvaćaju “druge” na dobar način, a osim toga, ovdje joj je i lako živjeti. Djeca joj idu u hrvatsku školu i drugi učenici ih dobro prihvaćaju. Nada se da će dobiti priliku da tu i dalje živi:

“Sretna sam što sam ovdje u Zagrebu, za mene je to lijep grad. Imam i hrvatske prijatelje ovdje, stvarno dobre ljude, dobronamjerne i nadam se da ću dobiti pozitivnu odluku [na podneseni zahtjev za azil, op. a.]”.

Hayina priča pokazuje koliko je za tražitelje azila bitna uključenost u društvo, u smislu da lokalnoj zajednici u kojoj se nalaze budu od koristi, radeći ono što najbolje znaju i istodobno surađujući s drugima koji žive u istoj sredini.

Samba

Samba ima 25 godina i rođen je u Dakru. Došao je u Hrvatsku u srpnju 2014. godine, zatražio azil i dobio ga. Iste godine susreo se s Okusom doma kada su ga iz CMS-a tražili recept i pitali o hrani koju jedu u Senegalu. Sudjelovao je i u raznim aktivnostima Okusa doma, a za Dane izbjeglica u lipnju 2015. prvi je put kuhao za njih. Na pitanje što Okus doma za njega znači, odgovorio je:

“… znači mnogo stvari: novu obitelj za mene[naglasile autorice, op. a.], novi kolektiv, sjajne ljude koje susrećem i odličnu ideju. Ideja je odlična jer je puna poruka, znači novu revoluciju za mene […], mnogo poruka: pokazati ostatku ovih ljudi da smo mi jedno i da možemo […] dijelimo hranu, različitu hranu i hranu koju jedemo iz jednog tanjura, a to znači jedinstvo, ujedinjenje svakoga, od bilo kuda. Možemo dijeliti da pokažemo da možemo učiniti nešto […]. To je jedan od mojih razloga [zašto sudjelujem, op. a], jer to vidim kao veliku ideju, dobre stvari koje su za mene jako važne, znaš… Jedinstvo, mir, ljubav… Nova obitelj i radiš ono što želiš.”

Iz ovog kazivanja vidimo da kolektiv Okus doma za azilante označuje jaku društvenu integraciju, a osjećaj pripadanja odnosno “stvaranja nove obitelji” pokazatelj je interakcijskog i identifikacijskog aspekta integracijskog procesa. Samba voli kuhati, a dati ljudima jesti za njega je nešto sjajno. Htio bi biti profesionalni kuhar, ali istodobno ne vjeruje u pojam “profesionalnosti”: “… stvari bi trebale biti prirodne u tebi […]. Znam tko sam, znam svoje kvalitete i znam što sve mogu učiniti – znam koji je moj nivo, ono što je u meni”. Kuhao je s tetom s kojom je odrastao pa i nju, uz svoju biološku majku, zove mamom. Na radionici je pripremio couscous (thiéré na njegovu jeziku, wolofu) od žitarica s mesom, paprikom i lukom. Ondje ga često jedu i pripremaju na razne načine, što on i danas prakticira u novom domu u Zagrebu. Unatoč nekim zamijenjenim sastojcima (npr. ulje od kikirikija sa suncokretovim), na radionici ga je pripremio prema bakinu receptu, na isti način kako ga pripremaju za senegalski nacionalni praznik. Odabirom pripreme jela koje je neizostavno za senegalsku proslavu državnog praznika, ali prema bakinu receptu, vidimo da je ovaj imigrant stvorio transnacionalno polje.

U privatnoj sferi ne hrani se jednako kao u Senegalu zbog nemogućnosti nabave jednakih namirnica, a ne koristi zamjenske sastojke jer tada ne bi dobio okus koji želi. Objašnjava da ne želi da mu iz Senegala išta šalju jer je skupo, uz riječi: “Mogu svagdje preživjeti”. No zadržao je naviku jedenja rukama iz jedne zdjele kao “kod kuće” jer su “ruke iskonska žlica, iskonska vilica, iskonski nož”, a jesti iz jednog tanjura za njega znači:

“… to je kao da smo jedno […]ne brinemo jesi li bolestan ili ne, jesi li različit… Nikad neću oboljeti ako dijelim hranu s nekim – to je za mene ljubav, a ljubav se ne može miješati s ničim drugim, ničim lošim […]. Samo idi i operi se, sjedni i jedi… Mi ne dijelimo ljude, podjela je i počela otuda: jedan tanjur, dva tanjura, tri tanjura […] dijelimo se i toga nismo ni svjesni […]. Jedna posuda za hranu znači: mi smo jedno”.

Tijekom izbjegličkog puta živio je u Grčkoj i tamo je jeo “normalno”, kao u Senegalu, jer ondje postoje trgovine s afričkim namirnicama. Sada je zaposlen u zadruzi Okus doma, a uskoro će dobiti i diplomu kuhara. Dakle, osim što je kolektiv ovom azilantu omogućio društvenu, interakcijsku i identifikacijsku dimenziju integracije s usporednim transnacionalnim pripadanjem, on mu omogućuje i ekonomsku integraciju. Zbog svega navedenog kazao je: “Život je tamo gdje ljudi žive, to je moja filozofija […] svagdje možeš naći svoj put […]. Moj život je svagdje, ali živim u Hrvatskoj”. Na kraju je naveo da mu je ovdje dobro: “Osjećam se dobro, osjećam se sjajno, osjećam se sretno u Hrvatskoj, osjećam sebe …”

TRANSNACIONALNOST DRUŠTVENOG POLJA OKUSA DOMA

Prema navedenim življenim izbjegličkim i azilantskim iskustvima Akina, Kamrana, Haye i Sambe, vidimo da oni povremeno bivaju u transnacionalnim društvenim poljima i sudjeluju u transnacionalnim procesima (Levitt i Glick Schiller 2004:1028). Naime, iste autorice razlikuju “načine bivanja” unutar polja koji se odnose na aktualne društvene odnose i svakodnevne prakse u kojima pojedinci sudjeluju. Nasuprot tomu, načini pripadanja transnacionalnom socijalnom polju odnose se na prakse koje označavaju ili utjelovljuju identitete koji pokazuju svjesnu vezu s određenom grupom. Te aktivnosti nisu simbolične, nego konkretne, vidljive aktivnosti koje označavaju pripadanje (Ibid. 1010). Svi narativi, kuhara i polaznika radionica, govore da su i jela koja su pripremili i cijela radionica bili odraz njihova načina bivanja i kontinuiteta njihova života tamo i ovdje: u svojoj zemlji podrijetla, u nekoj drugoj zemlji u kojoj su boravili prije dolaska u Hrvatsku (npr. Grčkoj, Makedoniji) i u Hrvatskoj. Zbog prirode prisilnih migracija saznale smo da azilanti nemaju običaj nabavljati hranu iz zemlje iz koje su otišli: Akin zbog svoga statusa izbjeglice to ne želi, Kamran i Samba jer bi to bilo preskupo, dok će Haya naručiti od kuće samo onu hranu koju iz praktičnih razloga ne može lako sama tu pripremiti – kishk. Nitko od kuhara nije posebno naglašavao nacionalni karakter svojih jela nego su to bila jela koja ih asociraju na vlastite obitelji, ljude koji su ih naučili kuhati i one s kojima su objedovali. No, jela koja su pripremali sadržavala su “transnacionalne” sastojke. Organizatori radionica i prijatelji azilanata nabavljaju im sastojke i time im pomažu biti, barem simbolično, u transnacionalnom polju. Radionice kuhanja nisu bile samo tečaj kuhanja: one su učvršćivale stavove polaznika (o važnosti integracije azilanata u hrvatsko društvo) i azilanata čija je hrana bila dobro prihvaćena, a time i oni sami. Analizirani slučaj Okusa doma potvrđuje da inkorporacija migranata u novu državu i transnacionalne veze nisu binarne suprotnosti te da se migrantsko iskustvo može razmatrati kao kretanje između nove zemlje i transnacionalne inkorporacije, kretanje koje tijekom vremena može mijenjati pravac i intenzitet (Ibid. 1011). Možda su najbolji dokaz toj tezi Sambina razmišljanja: “Život je tamo gdje ljudi žive […]. Moj život je svagdje, ali živim u Hrvatskoj.”

OKUS DOMA NA INTERNETSKIM STRANICAMA

Nakon opisa atmosfere na radionicama Okusa doma, iznošenja stavova kuhara i polaznika radionica, mogli bismo zaključiti kako domicilno stanovništvo dobro prihvaća kulturne različitosti i da je Okus doma primjer uspješnog smjera raznih dimenzija integracije. No, predstavljaju li sudionici radionica hrvatsko društvo ili su oni tek manjina? Odgovore na to potražile smo na internetskim stranicama. Internet je, premaBoyeru (2012:383), jedno od glavnih područja interesa antropologije medija koja se u posljednjih 40-ak godina bavila istraživanjima kako su proizvodnja i primanje objavljenih medijskih tekstova i tehnologija omogućili ili utjecali na procese kulturnog stvaranja i reproduciranja.

“Mogli bismo reći da je ono što vidimo na internetu zbirka tekstova. Na taj način korištenje interneta postaje proces čitanja i pisanja tekstova, a etnografov je zadatak razviti razumijevanje značenja koja su u osnovi tekstualnih praksi” (Hine 2004:36).

Budući da bi opsežna analiza medijskog diskursa o azilantima i Okusu doma premašila okvire ovog rada, cilj nam je bio propitati izdvojena mišljenja građana prema azilantima uključenima u ovu inicijativu. Istraživanje smo provele tako da smo na internetskom pretražitelju Googleu upisale Okus doma. Zbog brojnosti članaka, pozornost smo usmjerile na recentne, objavljene u razdoblju u kojem je provođeno istraživanje. Iščitavajući desetak tekstova koristile smo tematsku (diskurzivnu) analizu sadržaja (Bryman 2012:528–536) internetskih verzija dnevnih tiskovina ispod kojih su bili komentari, odnosno stavovi “širokog čitateljstva”, koje su čitatelji pod pravim ili lažnim imenima komentirali. U nastavku teksta donosimo fragmente nekoliko tekstova koji ocrtavaju kako su se prezentirala događanja u Okusu doma.

Vecernji.hr objavio je 24. veljače 2015. članak naslova Emina Bužinkić: Želimo otvoriti restoran u kojem će raditi azilanti i podnaslova Želja nam je da to postane mjesto integracije, a profit bi se vraćao izbjeglicama. Članak donosi kratke crtice iz života nekoliko azilanata i tražitelja azila koji trenutačno žive u Hrvatskoj, a potom povijest Okusa doma. Izjava E. Bužinkić uključuje podatke o broju dodijeljenih azila u Hrvatskoj, o kuharici Okus doma te planovima za osnivanje zadruge koja bi poslovala na principu socijalnog poduzetništva i koja bi se u početku bavila kuhanjem i dostavom hrane, a potom otvaranjem restorana koji bi vodile izbjeglice: “Okus doma treba postati mjesto integracije i povezivanja, a ostvareni profit bi se vraćao izbjeglicama u našoj zajednici i drugim marginaliziranim skupinama u društvu.” Uz članak je objavljena i galerija s devet fotografija azilanata, Emine, i jelā čiji su recepti priloženi uz članak (Matijević 2015).

Članak je izazvao više komentara koje prenosimo sa svim pravopisnim nepravilnostima, a kao što je vidljivo, većini se čitatelja ti komentari sviđaju (like), npr.:

Azilanti idu kući a Emina kao dobra hrvatska građana neka otvori restoran u kojem će raditi nezaposleni socijalni slučajevi hrvatskoi građani a zaradu neka ulažu u pučke kuhinje i prenoćišta. (novo vrijeme, like 88%)

Lijepo je i ljudski brinuti se za progonjene. Što je to centar za mirovne studije? Kod nas teče med i mlijeko, nemamo niti jednog nezaposlenog, a svakim danom odlazi izvan države sve više mladih. Možda bi bilo najbolje da svoje djelovanje ostave u MIROVANJU. (demokršćanin, like: 81%)

Sve azilanti iz islamskih držva. Lijepo ce nam povecati natalitet. To je cijena koju placamo za clanstvo EU (Cupcake, like 79%)

A kuži naziva, centar za mirovne studije, da čovjek nezna o kome se radi pomislio bi da je to možda neki fakultet, a kad tamo vidi vraga, sjedi dvadesetak seoskih krpalja na državnom kazanu koji imaju samo jedan zadatak, udomit i opremit tzv izbjeglice iz drugoga sela... (mileudarcina 1, like 86%)

Ovakovi se ne integriraju oni još traže od nas da mi prihvatimo njihov način života.

(grevilija, like 80%)

NE hvala!!!!!!! Pogledajte kako su se Francuzi usrećili....ili možda Šveđani!!! Užaz šta će nam stranci kad nam naši mladi bježe van TRBUHOM ZA KRUHOM!!!!! Ovo je vjedna velika izdaja, žele razvodniti nacionalno biće hrvata i to je to!!!!!! (kriticko razmisli, like 75% )

Azilante treba primati ako su stvarno to, ali pod uvjetom da se asimiliraju, da u prvom redu prihvate domaću najbrojniju vjeru - da nam se ne dogodi kao Englezima da im tamo rastu muslimanski teroristi koji mrze sve kršćansko. (silverback, like 75%)

Nadam se da će RH država bankrotirati što prije; građani plaćaju naskuplje poreze da mi se naša država 'preseravala' sa 'centrom za mirovne studije' 'socijalnim poduzetništvom za azilante i slično' .. u RH godišnje gubi desetke tisuća mladih, a država rasipa novac da hrani ove(na kraju pola njih fanovi ISILa ispadne)... ludnica.. otići ćemo u 'krc'.. (longestmailevercreatedfortrade, like 67%).

Nacional.hr objavio je 16. listopada 2015. članak OKUS DOMA Azilanti u Splitu kuhali nacionalna jela. Članak donosi vijest o održavanja gastronomskog showa na kojem su svoja nacionalna jela kuhali azilanti u Hrvatskoj, zajedno s korisnicima Centra za beskućnike udruge MoSt, a povod događanja bila su obilježavanja Svjetskog dana hrane i Dana borbe protiv siromaštva. Članak prenosi riječi E. Bužinkić o Okusu doma te navodi da su se prezentacije do tada održale u Sisku, Kutini, Čakovcu, Rijeci, Puli, te da nakon Splita slijede prezentacije u Osijeku i Vukovaru. U okviru je članka fotografija sa sudionicima događanja, uključujući kuhare iz Nigerije, Etiopije i Senegala. Na članak je reagirao jedan čitatelj koji se potpisao kao Sime Begonja i napisao:

…oti vam novi prijatelji dolaze sa velikim ciljem jeste vidili jucer nihovu parolu u svedskoj KATOLICI ILI SE POMUSLIMANITE ILI UMRITE to im je cilj.

Dobrahrana.jutarnji.hr objavio je 20. listopada 2015. članak o skupljanju novca za zadrugu i fotografiju pod naslovom Okus doma: nova kampanja koja će pomoći imigrantima otvoriti restoran u Hrvatskoj i podnaslovom Plemenita gesta koja spaja nove kulture i nudi novi početak! Sama inicijativa kratko je opisana, uz poveznicu na kratki (dvominutni) video s jedne od radionica kuhanja, na kojoj su intervjuirani polaznici radionice i kuhari. Na kraju videa jedan od kuhara na engleskom jeziku poziva ljude da sudjeluju u inicijativi kojoj je cilj skupiti 15 000 eura kako bi se kupila oprema za kuhinju zadruge, potrebna za pokretanje biznisa dostavljanje hrane. Ispod teksta su dva komentara:

A bogati, i ja bih otvorila svoj restoran i vratila se u svoju zemlju. Tko ce mi pomoći donacijama???? (Natalija)

Koketne hipsterice koje oblijeću oko mladih crnaca… ma baš se pitam kakva ih kobasa zanima iz domaće kuhinje.(Tomislav)

ANALIZA INTERNETSKIH ČLANAKA

Iščitavajući navedene članke, možemo zaključiti da su ih autori pisali faktografski, članci su opremljeni brojnim fotografijama, ton prema izbjeglicama, azilantima i svima uključenima u ovaj kolektiv je pozitivan, odnosno riječ je o pozitivnom medijskom diskursu prema Okusu doma. PremaSpitulnik (1993:295), najraširenija, i u 1980-ima najdominantnija paradigma procesa masovnih komunikacija jest linearni model sačinjen od tri razine: proizvodnja poruke, prenošenje poruke i primanje poruke, pri čemu se poruka shvaća kao glavna jedinica kulturnog značenja, snažno sredstvo loma ili reproduciranja dominantnih ideologija u društvu. U ovom radu promatramo treću razinu: kako su medijske poruke o postojanju i djelatnosti Okusa doma primljene kod čitatelja. Prema navedenim komentarima, vidljivo je da su oni u oštrom kontrastu s iznimno prijateljskim dojmovima polaznika radionice i konzumentima hrane na promocijama i pozitivnim stavovima novinara. Najviše je komentara izazvao prvi članak objavljen na portalu Večernjeg lista: svi su komentari bili negativistički nastrojeni, a uz to su uglavnom dobivali i odobravanja (likeove) drugih. U stavovima čitatelja u komentarima vidljivi su realni čimbenici socioekonomske prijetnje koji dolaze od useljenika, a povezani su s ekonomskim interesima (Usp.Čačić-Kumpes et al. 2012:314, 316), gospodarskom krizom, visokim postotkom nezaposlenosti u Hrvatskoj, iseljavanjem, malim brojem djece, što sve dovodi do promatranja azilanata kao oduzimatelja ionako premalih ekonomskih resursa za potrebe domaćeg stanovništva. S druge strane, vidljivi su simbolični čimbenici (sociokulturna prijetnja) (Ibid.) povezani s kulturom, običajima, vjerom i vrijednostima.

Stuart Hall pita se kako predstavljamo ljude i mjesta koja su značajno drugačija od nas, zašto je “različitost” tako privlačna tema i sporno područje reprezentacije, koji su tipični oblici i reprezentativne prakse koje se koriste kako bi se predstavila “razlika” u današnjoj popularnoj kulturi, kao i otkuda dolaze ti stereotipi (Hall 1997:225). Možemo li objasniti zašto reprezentacije “različitosti” angažiraju osjećaje, stavove, emocije i mobiliziraju strahove i zebnje kakve smo vidjeli u komentarima čitatelja nekih od članaka? Ljudi koji su na bilo koji način različiti od većine (“oni” nasuprot “nas”), često budu izloženi binarnom obliku reprezentacije “kroz jasno suprotstavljene, polarizirane, binarne ekstreme – dobar / loš, civilizirani / primitivan, ružan / pretjerano privlačan, odbojan-jer-je-drugačiji / privlačan-jer-je-stran-i-egzotičan” (Ibid. 229). Za ovu tezu nalazimo potvrdu u izjavi azilanta iz Nigerije koji živi u Hrvatskoj: “Crnci imaju shizofren prolaz kod hrvatskih cura. Ili ih privlače bez osobitog razloga osim što su crnci ili ih iz istog vrhunskog razloga odbijaju.” (Usp.Dujmović 2015).

Slijedeći argumenteMary Douglas (1966), u većini komentara azilanti su nešto nepoželjno, oni su nešto što uznemiruje poredak unutar hrvatskog društva (kulture). Simbolične granice između kultura održavaju ih “čistima”, dajući im njihovo jedinstveno značenje i identitet. Tamnoputi su kuhari reducirani na pojam azilanata koji su trenutačno oni “drugi”, a budući da su i po svom statusu i po boji kože različiti od “domaćeg” stanovništva, ne trebaju nam jer posla nema ni za “naše”. Tu ulazimo u domenu stereotipa čije je jedno od obilježja upravo praksa “zatvaranja” i isključenja koja simbolički fiksira granice te isključuje sve ono što se ne uklapa, što je različito (Hall 1997:258). Osim toga, treba prvo nahraniti i pobrinuti se za “našu socijalu” prije no što se pomisli na išta drugo osim poruke azilantima da idu negdje drugdje. Komentatori članaka vide višestruke opasnosti/prijetnje: razvodnit će nacionalno biće Hrvata, uzimaju poslove od “naših”, posebno mladih (koji su prisiljeni odlaziti iz Hrvatske) i nametnut će nam muslimansku vjeru. Pri ovom posljednjem rezoniranju nije bitno to što se nigdje u člancima ne spominje religija azilanata. Na navedenim primjerima komentara na članke susrećemo se s intertekstualnošću koja se definira kao akumulacija značenja preko različitih tekstova, gdje se neka slika referira na drugu ili je njezino značenje promijenjeno tako što je pročitano u kontekstu drugih slika (Ibid. 232). Možemo zaključiti da su komentatori članaka o Okusu doma svoje mišljenje stvarali i na brojnim drugim člancima o azilantima (Usp.Župarić-Iljić 2013), ali i imigrantima općenito (Franc et al. 2010;Šram 2010;Čačić-Kumpes et al. 2012) u kojima autori zaključuju da se azilanti i imigranti percipiraju kao socioekonomska i sociokulturna prijetnja za hrvatsko društvo, da se doživljavaju kao konkurencija na tržištu rada, te da zatvorenost prema kulturnoj različitosti vodi u isključivost domaće populacije prema imigrantima (Usp.Župarić-Iljić 2013:209).

Premda nemaju striktno političku vezu u sebi, neki od negativnih diskursa u komentarima ispod članaka asociraju na prvi tip simboličkog konflikta kojeg je identificirao Simon Harrison jer ih, premaSenjković (2002:274), možemo pročitati kao primjer etničkog i nacionalističkog suparništva koja uvećavaju kulturne različitosti i odraz su negativne taktike “procjenjivačkog natjecanja”. Komentatori članaka verbalno su napadali izbjeglice kao “druge”, svrstavali ih u skupinu onih koji će nam nametnuti muslimansku vjeru, i slično, a i članovi CMS-a su suparnici jer podržavaju takve “druge”, pa su tako i otpadnici od društva “naših” ili su čak žene sumnjiva morala (“koketne hipsterice koje oblijeću oko mladih crnaca”). Možemo utvrditi da u nekim komentarima čitatelja nalazimo i drugi tip Harrisonova simboličkog konflikta, “vlasničko natjecanje”: namjera da se izbjeglice zaposle okarakterizirana je u pojedinim komentarima kao neprijateljsko ponašanje, a pravo na rad u Hrvatskoj i zarađivanje uzimaju se kao važni kolektivni simboli koji prije svega pripadaju većinskoj zajednici, Hrvatima.

Prikazani komentari internetskih članaka o Okus doma projekcije su stavova anonimnih čitatelja koji, možemo pretpostaviti, nisu bili u interakciji s tražiteljima međunarodne zaštite u Hrvatskoj. Predstavljeni internetski komentari svakako upućuju na dio neotvorenoga hrvatskog društva prema azilantima, kao i ljudima različitih kultura, rasa i vjera.Oni isto tako pokazuju ono što jeHage (2000) nazvao vladajućim pripadanjem naciji jer osjećaju da imaju pravo nad nacijom (pa time i legitimno mišljenje o azilantima) i njezinim upravljanjem na način da Hrvatska mora ostati “njihov dom”. “Ovo je moja nacija” jest stav koji se može pročitati u pozadini većine (ako ne i svih) internetskih komentara.

ZAKLJUČAK

S obzirom na globalna migracijska strujanja i na starost europskog i hrvatskog stanovništva, moglo se pretpostaviti da će se u Hrvatsku u kontekstu njezina članstva u EU-u u bliskoj budućnosti doseljavati sve veći broj stranaca (Čačić-Kumpes et al. 2012), a i da će Republika Hrvatska davati veći broja azila (Župarić-Iljić 2013). Međutim, “izbjeglička kriza” koja je započela 2015. godine, kao i recentna iseljavanja hrvatskih građana u potrazi za poslom i boljim standardom života, pokazuju neke drugačije pravce migriranja u hrvatski teritorij i izvan njega. Posljednjih desetak godina, sukladno novim migracijskim tokovima, dopunjuju se postojeći i/ili donose novi EU programi, mehanizmi i instrumenti za promicanje integracije.16

Europska komisija predložila je 2011. novu European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals 17

u kojoj se, između ostalog, fokusira na povećavanje društvene i kulturne participacije migranata i aktivnosti na lokalnim razinama.Kroz Okus doma čiji je cilj upravo česta interakcija azilanata/stranaca s domaćim stanovništvom, bilo kroz promocije hrane na javnim događanjima, čestu prisutnost u medijima i slično, upravo se prakticiraju takve smjernice. Unatoč tomu što je ova inicijativa pokrenuta u Zagrebu, svoje promocije organiziraju u brojnim drugim gradovima. Mišljenja smo da bi se nakon stjecanja prvog iskustva u zadruzi Okusa doma dio azilanata mogao zaposliti u drugim hrvatskim sredinama, posebice na jadranskoj obali gdje ionako manjka radne snage u ugostiteljstvu. Kako je cilj pokretača Okusa doma bio da se kroz kuhanje artikulira ono što izbjeglice i imigranti jesu i tako razbijaju predrasude i stereotipi o njima, boravkom azilanata u manjim sredinama i svakodnevnim kontaktima s domicilnim stanovništvom mogao bi se postići upravo taj cilj. Organizatori smatraju da se kulinarstvo pokazalo kao dobar medij za to jer ga nitko ne shvaća kao prijetnju ili ugrozu. To mišljenje dijele i polaznici radionica i azilanti. Osim toga, kako ističu, Okus doma pokazuje društvu da izbjeglice nešto rade, da nisu došli tu kako bi uzimali poslove ili žene od “domaćeg stanovništva”, odnosno da ne žele biti na teret državi.

Prema navedenoj kvalitativnoj građi, dobivenoj intervjuima s azilantima i polaznicima radionica, možemo zaključiti da je ovaj program uspješan za provedbu društvene, kulturne, interakcijske i identifikacijske integracije azilanata, a ima tendenciju pružiti i ekonomsku integraciju zasad za nekoliko azilanata.18Sudjelovanje u Okusu doma pokazalo se bitnim za identitetsku dimenziju integracije, odnosno osjećaj osobnog zadovoljstva i pripadanja, što potvrđuje isticanje azilanata da su pronašli “novu obitelj”, a ljudi koji se u okviru ove inicijative upoznaju druže se i privatno. Na osnovi etnografije pojedinačnog, vidljivo je da je integracija dinamičan proces jer je jedan od azilanata tijekom našeg istraživanja mijenjao mišljenje i zadovoljstvo o svojoj trenutačnoj situaciji i životu u Hrvatskoj.

Ne osporavajući teze da je priroda izbjegličkih migracija biti “između” dvije države, na osnovi građe iznesene u ovom radu možemo zaključiti da sama jela koje azilanti (dakle, izbjeglice koje su dobile zaštitu nove države) pripremaju na radionicama, bez obzira na to jesu li ona pripremljena s namirnicama baš kao kod kuće ili pokušavaju to postići, predstavljaju utjelovljene transnacionalne prakse kuhara i njegova/njezina kontinuiteta bivanja u Hrvatskoj i, na simboličkoj (identitetskoj) razini, u zemlji podrijetla, jer to jelo odražava ne samo ono na što su navikli jesti odmalena nego i njihove osobne poglede na hranu i objedovanje. Za jednog je sugovornika tako “neprirodno” jesti sam, za drugog je prirodno jesti iz jedne posude, tj. dijeljenje hrane na tanjure za svakoga posebno znači podjelu među ljudima, dok treći misli da je azijska hrana koju je navikao jesti hranjivija i bolja od hrane koju jede u Hrvatskoj.

Prema provedenom istraživanju, vidimo i da je integracija dvojaka: s jedne strane, domicilno stanovništvo u direktnim kontaktima s azilantima pokazuje veliku otvorenost prema kulturnim i ostalim različitostima, a s druge komentari čitatelja internetskih vijesti i sviđanje tih komentara većini drugih čitatelja pokazuje sasvim suprotna mišljenja – društvenu distanciju i visoku razinu otpora prema njihovu ulasku u hrvatsko društvo. Odnosno, azilante percipiraju kao sociokulturnu i socioekonomsku prijetnju. Zbog svega navedenoga, potvrdit ćemo razmišljanja C. Geertza:

Analiza kulture intrinzično je nepotpuna. I, što je još gore, što je dublja, to je manje potpuna. To je čudna nauka čije najupečatljivije tvrdnje imaju najnesigurniju osnovu, u kojoj napredovati u vezi s nekim pitanjem znači pojačavati sumnju, i u sebi i u drugima, da ga niste baš dobro shvatili. Ali upravo to, zajedno sa mučenjem finih ljudi glupim pitanjima, znači biti etnograf. (Gerc 1998:44)

Oba, sasvim različita konteksta – prijateljsko ozračje i oduševljenje svih koji su fizički sudjelovali na promocijama i radionicama, te suprotan neprijateljski stav prema kuharima azilantima ali i organizatorima – otkrivaju nam multiterenski pristup istraživanju Okusa doma, a, između ostalog, i kompleksnost pitanja integracije azilanata u hrvatsko društvo. Bit će zanimljivo pratiti razvoj kolektiva Okus doma, a posebno njihovu uspješnost u zapošljavanju izbjeglica u zadruzi koju su pokrenuli, s time da ne smijemo zanemariti da zadruga ne zapošljava samo azilante nego i dio domicilnog stanovništva. Stoga će propitivanje pozicija moći unutar kolektiva Okus doma svakako biti tema daljnjeg istraživanja. Kako je naše istraživanje provođeno na samom početku osnivanja i djelovanja zadruge Okus doma, smatramo i da će tek nakon određenog vremena biti moguće realnije utvrditi je li ovdje riječ o uspješnoj integraciji azilanata i tražitelja azila u hrvatsko društvo.

INTRODUCTION

The recent inflow of refugees and asylum seekers1 to the European Union member states represents one of the key social issues today, especially when it comes to their integration. Between the beginning of 2006 and the end of the first quarter of 2016, the Republic of Croatia granted international protection to 176 persons2 and thus committed itself to giving them certain economic, social and cultural rights (e.g. welfare, health care, education, courses on the Croatian language, history and culture, accommodation, employment…)3. However, the reality of contemporary Croatia, primarily as an emigrant and transit country with a highly homogenous society, weak economy, high unemployment rate and limited means of welfare state, coupled with a lack of planned integration policies for (recognised) refugees, puts persons under protection in a position of social isolation and poverty that makes it impossible for them to secure their means of subsistence in the long term. (Baričević 2013:112). 

In the European context, the integration of immigrants into host countries became the subject of research in the late 70s and early 80s. Since then, countries have devised various integration policies (cf.Geddes 2003,Brochmann and Hammar 1999) in order to regulate the inclusion of immigrants into the receiving society while, at the same time, striving to avoid the hitherto existing assimilation and segregation processes. The underpinning idea was that immigrants from other cultures and different religious and linguistic backgrounds should be incorporated into society as a whole by means of mutual adaptation and acceptance. The principle of cultural pluralism was used as a starting point (Brubaker 1992,Heršak 1998:84). In line with immigration policies and the (non)indicators of their implementation, a growing number of scientific considerations as to what integration should include (e.g. Favell, Geddes, Penninx, Heckmann and Schnapper, Hollifield etc) began to emerge. In addition to the three key dimensions of the integration process: legal-political, socio-economic and cultural-religious (Penninx 2004), we wish to highlight the interactive (social relations and networks) and identifying (belonging) dimensions, which emphasise the subjectivisation of the integration process, i.e. perception of the integration from the migrant's point of view (cf. Esser 2001:16 according toPenninx and Garcés-Mascareńas 2016:13).

Of course, one has to bear in mind that immigrants are not a homogeneous entity and that contemporary societies significantly differ from the cultural and political ideals of a national container and do not imply cultural homogeneity. Furthermore, past research showed that the inclusion of immigrants into the receiving society presupposes a two-way process in which different cultural values are accepted and exchanged, and differences are respected through the interaction between immigrants and the host country population (Goodman 2000), as well as the interaction between institutional structures and migrants (Brubaker 1992).

The aim of this paper is to, on the example of the Taste of Home collective case study4, provide an overview of the attempts at integrating asylees and asylum seekers into Croatian society and the extent to which they succeed at this. This paper will outline the underlying idea and project of the Taste of Home collective, launched by the activists of the non-governmental organisation Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) (Centar za mirovne studije) 5 from Zagreb together with refugees and asylum seekers. It focuses on the asylees' lived experiences: what the participation in this collective means to them, whether it opens the way to socialisation, whether it secures their subsistence, i.e. whether and to what extent can we consider their active participation in the Taste of Home as a socio-economic, cultural, interactive and identification dimension of integration. On the other hand, it will also explore the extent to which this collective enables immigrant to live in a transnational space, together with the extent to which the preparation and promotion of food from their home country contributes to the feeling of parallel existence in two places. Finally, we shall examine the citizens' opinions on asylees through media discourse analysis of their comments on online articles on the Taste of Home initiative.

METHODOLOGY

The research was conducted from October 2015 to May 20166. It is based on qualitative methodology of ethnology and cultural anthropology:  interviews, participant observation and media discourse analysis.

After informal interviews with participants in multiple events at which food from the Taste of Home project was presented (e.g. Refugee Day, Migrants Day, New Year celebrations...), more in-depth research was carried out at two cooking workshops with the aim of writing ethnographic field notes7 and arranging individual interviews both with refugee-cooks and  participants, in addition to participant observation. The goal was to observe asylees and course participants at presentations and look into the attitudes of the attendees towards the hosts/cooks/asylees and the food, thus indirectly examining the local population’s attitudes towards Others/ foreigners. 

By using semi-structured and structured interviews, we recorded four lived refugee integration and culinary experiences. The goal was to find out the length of the refugees’ stay in Croatia, everyday practices in food preparation, why they joined the Taste of Home project, the choice of food they prepare, the origin of the recipes they use, etc. The migrants were aged 25 to 37, of both sexes and with different levels of education (the majority completed secondary school, while the higher education of some was interrupted due to forced departure from their country of origin). The interviews were conducted in English, French and Croatian, i.e. in the language chosen by interviewees. Workshop participants were additionally questioned about the reasons for their participation and the experience they gained8. We also interviewed Emina Bužinkić from CPS, one of the authors of the initiative and Zinka Mujkić, staff member and coordinator of the Taste of Home cooperative. The research was conducted using ethnography of the particular (Abu-Lughod 1991) and the grounded theory strategies (Charmaz 2011) with the aim of developing the research questions instead of their “linear” confirmation (Emerson, Fretz, Shaw 1995).       

During research, we followed media production which was used for the application of double ethnographic practice (Wittel 2004:19). Firstly, this involves an ethnographer taking part, i.e. being present at a social situation he/she is describing, and secondly, revealing the context and complexity whereby the potential of the ethnographic method lies in what Geertz calls “thick description” (Gerc 1998). The goal of the paper is to show the complexity of the reception of the initiative for the integration of refugees into Croatian society, a complexity that stems from two approaches to our study of this initiative: on one hand, participant observation at food presentations and cooking workshops, coupled with interviews of participants and cooks, and on the other, a description of the discourse of news articles posted on the internet and an analysis of comments they provoked.

Furthermore, the goal was to explore whether the Taste of Home collective enables refugees to maintain their cultural or dietary habits and promote their own culture, thereby reducing the distinction between country of origin and country of immigration. For this purpose, we used the transnational paradigm within the framework of which immigrant practices and social relationships that go beyond state borders are observed, or those by which immigrants link their countries/places of birth/life and their present country (cf.Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004,Faist et al. 2013). Transnational social spaces and fields mean that, in spite of great spatial distances and national borders, certain social interactions show a trend of global intensification (Glick Schiller et al. 1992). In this paper, we explore the role of the Taste of Home collective in the creation of transnational or transcontinental social spaces9. Numerous studies on transnational practices showed that food prepared using familiar recipes, as well as ingredients and packaged food items brought from the country of origin to the new home, are indispensable elements  (Povrzanović Frykman 2010,Povrzanović Frykman and Humbracht 2013,Petridou 2001,Gadže i Rajković Iveta 2015).  Since food stimulates all senses and thus recreates the experience of home almost in its entirety, in this paper we shall view food through its function of providing continuity and a feeling of connection to home. Due to its capacity to reconstruct the sensory totality of home and the familiar, we explore whether food can help in a symbolic reconstruction of a world that has been fragmented by changing one’s country of residence (Petridou 2001). Previous studies showed that food represents much more than just nutrition, as people choose, cook and serve certain meals because those evoke memories, mark important dates and express their identity (Gadže and Rajković Iveta 2015). Moreover, people from the same social i.e. cultural circle share the same associations to certain types of food, views on food, knowledge and dietary habits, all of which make up dietary culture (Contreras and Gracia Arnaiz 2005:37). Since food has an important biological, symbolic and affective role, migrant groups do not forget their dietary habits since. In this paper, we wish to determine whether food helps to preserve memories, whether recipes and meals prepared in a familiar way awaken senses that foster culture transfer and whether certain foods play an emotional role in the lives of immigrants (Ibid.).

FOUNDATION OF THE TASTE OF HOME COLLECTIVE

The Taste of Home collective came into being as part of the projectQuality Integration Solutions for Refugees 10. The Taste of Home collective is the subject of our research in the sense presented on their Facebook page11, which is also the tool they use the most to communicate with a wider audience. The Taste of Home collective is presented as a social cooperative run by refugees, migrants and volunteers and, at the same time, as a group of individuals brought together by a shared interest in food and cooking. The publication titled “Taste of home” (Bužinkić 2014 s. n.) states that Taste of Home is a “research–gastronomic-culinary project acquainting us with the culture, customs and societies of origin of refugees in Croatia by recording their memories of home and the smells and flavours of their cuisine. This experiment is an exchange of life stories and culinary skills between refugees and people from Croatia.”12

In an interview with Emina Bužinkić, we found out that the Taste of Home collective was modelled after similar ideas implemented in other parts of the world, for example in Great Britain and Australia, through so-called asylee or refugee cookbooks, which on one hand deal with kitchens as places for gathering and cooking as such (public kitchen events) and, on the other hand, represent printed collections of refugees' recipes, aimed at stimulating people to taste dishes from other cultures, get acquainted with them and break down prejudices against refugees. The volunteers and activists gathered around CPS started working with refugees in 2003, talking to them about their everyday lives, problems, their dreams, etc. Successful communication is based on trust, and the between CPS members and refugees was established successfully. First they had coffee together, socialised and then, at one point, started collecting refugee stories and recipes. Between 2006 and 2014, they managed to collect thirty recipes and stories, twenty of which were published in the volume titled“A Taste of Home” (2014). In the words of E. Bužinkić:

“Taste of Home does not mean just recording the stories, Taste of Home is really a space where people are ready to engage in a dialogue with each other … learn from each other and where we, as an expression of what we are, chose cooking, language teaching and some kind of intercultural exchange”.

Many workshops and promotional activities were organised within the Taste of Home framework, in which immigrants13prepared and presented food from their countries of origin. These events were organised by civil society organisations, schools and international organisations (e.g. UNICEF, UNHCR, Red Cross…). The Taste of Home collective has also been offering food delivery service since its registration in March 2016. Zinka Mujkić, cooperative coordinator, told us that the clients are mostly NGOs, cultural institutions and associations active in work with young people. It is important to point out that money for registering the cooperative and furnishing its kitchen (19,000 USD in total) was raised from citizens through a crowdfunding campaign, who in return enjoyed various perks, such as participation in a workshop/ culinary course run by the Taste of Home collective. Our research is based on participant observation at two such workshops.

TASTE OF HOME COOKING WORKSHOPS

The first cooking workshop we attended was held on Saturday, 13 February 2016 at Opatovina, Zagreb in the Kuhaona rented facility, the other on 19 March 2016 in the Centre for Dietary Culture in Zagreb. There were six cooking teams in the first workshop, with each team consisting of one or two cooks and two or three participants. All of the cooks were immigrants, some of whom were asylees, and there was also one person in the process of application for protection. The nationalities of the cooks determined the type food of food that would be prepared, which means that Ethiopian, Libyan, Nigerian, Pakistani, Syrian and Senegalese dishes were made at the workshop.

The workshops can be described as a fine blend of aromas and flavours. Laughter and chatter (in Croatian, English and French) were heard through music coming from the radio. People were drumming on the tables and high fiving each other. The participants were introduced to each other and exchanged experiences on cooking and travels. As the cooking began to make the kitchen warmer, the fine smells of familiar and less familiar foods and spices (coriander, caraway, cumin, cayenne pepper…) started spreading through the room. People called out to each other, asking for ingredients or cooking utensils, talking and/or questioning each other, tasting the food that was being prepared. The utensils banged, spice packages rustled, one cook's shoes clunked on the kitchen floor. One cook's dish was boiling over, another cook over salted by mistake, but in the end the dish was saved. This short thick description (Geertz 1998) brings only a tiny part of the very relaxed atmosphere at the workshops; the friendly atmosphere made it possible for everyone to establish rapport with others and engage in conversation, which meant that the three hours of cooking flew by very rapidly. At the end of the workshop, all of the participants tasted and enjoyed the prepared food, satisfied at having participated in the workshop. When everything was eaten, people danced for a while to the sounds of Ethiopian and Libyan music from Youtube. Then most of us left and hung out a bit longer in a nearby coffee bar.

The participants' motives for coming were varied: Ana (35, agronomist, born in Munich, lives in Zagreb) is acquainted with an asylee from before and is aware of the difficulties he is facing in Croatia, especially when it comes to looking for employment. Therefore, she came “to support financially this praiseworthy initiative”. Marija (32) works on an NGO project in Čakovec aimed at improving the lives of third-country nationals in Croatia, and one part of this project also supported Taste of Home: they took part in furnishing their kitchen and riased other necessary funds. She brought three colleagues to the workshop as volunteers. Ivan (32, IT specialist, lives in Zagreb) came with his wife, and the workshop was a Christmas gift from their friends who knew they like to cook and travel. Lana (22, student, Zagreb) described her motive for joining the workshop thus: “My roommate asked me if I would volunteer in a workshop …, when she explained what it was about, the idea of meeting new people and getting to know other cultures immediately appealed to me. When I arrived and heard that Samba was from Senegal, I realised it was a great opportunity for me to speak French.”

The impressions of all interviewed workshop participants were very positive, which was confirmed in additional interviews:

“I'd describe the atmosphere as relaxed, fun, friendly... like when you cook with friends at home. Very nice. And I think “my” cook was the best. I cannot really tell why, but cooking and hanging out with him was such fun. Very interesting person… would definitely do it again… because it was such a lovely and fun experience, unexpectedly relaxed, partly because I like supporting people in what they do. Working, being employed and thus financially secure is, after all, one of the fundamental things in life. We cannot live... on air and sun. These people are all young and eager to work, but I am fairly certain their chances on our job market are slim. They need our support in their efforts to work.” (Ana)

“… the whole thing was awesome because the atmosphere was so friendly. Part of our task was to chat with them and just hang out; I had a feeling that everybody was in an exceptionally good mood, no communication problems whatsoever... We were accepted with open arms and the fact that food was a central topic created a friendly and family-like atmosphere from the start. Food seems the fastest means of connecting people. I had the loveliest time and that they need our support… They hope to open a cooperative – create a chance to be self-employed – and what is most important – they do not wish to be a burden to others in Croatia, but to build their own life here by themselves – it is an attitude I, myself, would wholeheartedly support.” (Marija)

“It was super interesting, I learnt how to make new dishes, I met new people and had a chance to know them – I simply like this kind of thing... I like the idea of this workshop, it helps people find jobs, while we have a chance to learn something new…” (Ivan)

“It was interactive and since the people we cooked with were friendly and talkative, it turned out to be a lovely experience. I didn’t expect much, I even thought I would be bored... I was sceptical, but all that changed... This is a very good way... for asylees to try to integrate … and making food a central part of it was the smartest way to do it – there is nothing as familiar to people as food… when two people from two different cultures have nothing in common, food might be their common ground.” (Lana)

Although the reasons for taking part in the workshops were different (desire to help, voluntarism, gifting, meeting immigrants…) as was the participants’ previous knowledge about immigrants, asylees and asylum seekers, it is evident from the above statements that all participants were extremely happy about the experience because they spent a pleasant and interesting day, gained new experiences in a friendly and relaxing environment, learnt about other cultures, tasted new food, all while contributing to the integration of asylees into Croatian society by accepting their food/culture and giving them the opportunity to cook/ work. However, we also must not overlook the fact that some of the comments, although positive, have in the background the discourse that “those” people (i.e.: them, others, different) need our support, they do not wish to be a “burden to” Croatia, it is a worthwhile effort to find “them” work (someone else doing it for asylees, not asylees themselves), this being a good example of asylees “trying to get integrated”. The very phrase “trying to get integrated” a priori implies uncertain outcomes.Ghassan Hage (2000) writes about phantasies on Whitesupremacy in multicultural society and deconstructs power relations found in the behaviour and talk of those who consider themselves managers of national space, whether they are nationalists or multiculturalists or cosmopolitans. Managers of national space are also found in the background discourse of the Taste of Home workshops: local people consider themselves called to give (informal) approval to asylees to work, to prove they are not burden for the state (nation) and to try to get integrated into “our” society. According to Hage (Ibid. 45), there are at least two modes of belonging to the national home: the first is passive belonging, the other governmental belonging. The mode of passive belonging involves the belief he or she “belongs to a nation”, in the sense of being its part and therefore entitled to using national resources, “fitting into it” or “feeling at home” within it. “I belong to nation” is an approximate attitude of such managers of national space. On the other hand, governmental belonging (which is not equivalent to formal state power or government) involves the belief he or she has a right over nation, including the right to contribute (even if only with his or her legitimate opinion on the internal and external policies of the nation) to its management such that it remains “his/her home”. “This is my nation” is, according to Hage, the formulation of those feeling governmental belonging to a nation. Although “tolerant ”14 and friendly toward asylees and asylum seekers, the statements of the workshop participants show they speak from the position of passive belonging to the national space that surrounded us while we were cooking with asylees and asylum seekers in the Taste of Home workshops. 

The cooks and participants of the “Taste of Home” workshop. Photo by Igor Bezinović, 13 February, 2016

THE MIGRANTS' EXPERIENCES AND THE DISHES OF THE TASTE OF HOME COOKS

The purpose of participant observation was not solely to observe the workshop from close proximity but also to interact with our subjects, ask questions and gain an insight into the lives unfolding in front of us (Hine 2004:33). Individual interviews with the cooks were also set up in the workshops: with Akin from Nigeria, Kamran from Pakistan, Haya from Syria and Samba from Senegal. What follows are their lived refugee, integration and culinary experiences.

Akin

Akin is a 30-year-old Nigerian who fled his home country for political reasons and threats to his life. He says that, in Croatia, he can sleep “with his eyes closed”, unlike back home. He arrived to Croatia on 24 December 2011 and successfully applied for asylum. He cooked already as a child and his food is something he misses the most from home. Akin joined the Taste of Home collective already at the end of 2012. After sharing his refugee story and his recipe with the members of Centre for Peace Studies, he began cooking for them at their presentations.

“The Taste of Home looks like when you go to one big hotel and they tell you: “Oh, we have international dishes” – that means it's diversity. Always people need to try something new, to get more experience about, to know or to get closer to … other cultures…. For me, it is really like this is integration… When there is a food, cooking of food, making some music event, when the people try to present what they eat and what they do – that makes in community like Croatia less of racism, less of all that bad attitude. I think we have reached lots of people's minds so they're thinking migrants are something good… So these activities mean a lot to me, they are very helpful in our cause of trying to bring balance and not thinking of us as we are strangers…”

At the Taste of Home workshops, Akin usually prepares jollow rice, a dish made of meat, red peppercorn and Yoruba tomatoes. It is a traditional celebratory dish from Southwestern Nigeria. “If you do not cook jollow rice if you have some event, then your event is not complete. People will talk about it as: “Maybe they are poor, maybe they do not know what they are doing”… It’s a simple meal but you never eat it alone. If you eat it alone, you’ll be tired, you’ll feel lonely and depressed.” As the necessary spices called ogiri and shombo are hard to find in Zagreb, he uses different kinds of peppercorns which change the taste of the dish. This bothers him sometimes, so his friends from CPS bring him African spices from the “tropical shop” in Vienna, where other African ingredients can be found, as well. Explaining why he does not have somebody to send him spices from Nigeria, he says it is because he doesn’t want to have any contact with home, as he is an asylee. Then he adds: “I eat what I see”. Nevertheless, he tries not to eat alone, as eating by himself feels lonely and strange to him.

“Most of my life in Nigeria, I ate with my family, I ate with my friends. But here, at the beginning, I felt lonely, I felt very, very lonely, I ate alone, and I didn’t feel what I eat. I didn’t feel the taste. It just makes no meaning. I just eat for eating and not to be sick. Later, when I was in Zagreb for a year, I tried to get an association, so lots of guys came to my house. I can still remember until today that no one came to my house that I didn’t cook… I always cook. Because it is what it is... Now I got this culture from here, to eat alone. It’s not good to eat burek, to eat pizza on the road – it is not healthy, it’s not normal. It’s never, never, never good to eat in that way… You know, food means a lot, it’s not just about eating. Eating food [with others, author’s comment] means a lot – there is a spirit in this. But why eating alone? In Africa, they say you are like an animal when you do this. In Africa we promote harmony with one another, then respect.”

It is obvious that this asylee does not want to be in contact with his home country or have anything sent to him from Nigeria, and that he wishes to be a part of his new society; he invites friends over and cooks for them. His new friends make him feel less lonely and he gladly shares his food with them, the same way he used to do back in Nigeria with family and friends. But the tastes, aromas and gifted spices he uses to cook food for his new friends still remind him of home and the family he left behind. At the moment, his cooking with the Taste of Home is just a hobby, but it also helps him integrate into his new country, as well as changing some initial impressions of Croatia. When he started cooking back in 2012, his food was such a success that many came for second helpings and he was pleasantly surprised: “Croatian people eat Nigerian food - this is awesome!” This added an interactive dimension to the integration. He is convinced that food can change opinions and forge friendships. Food also changed his perception of Croatia as a closed-off country not particularly friendly to the “different”. He believes that the Taste of Home is:

…a project that will establish Zagreb and Croatia as a country amenable to integration. It will show… to everybody that Croatia accepted their refugees, that they established a catering business and then their own restaurant. This project is giving us the opportunity to show the richness of our culture and our way of life. This is our chance to show who we are! I am so happy and grateful that, even if I’m having ten jobs, the Taste of Home needs me, I’ll drop everything in a heartbeat and come running! There will come a lot of good stories out of this. We’ll have everything and anything on our menu. That is how it is supposed to be, this mixing of cultures. The Taste of Home is the only real integration that exists in Croatia. Integration, incorporation into a society free of racism. It is a truly awesome thing that happened to the refugees. (Pavić 2016 s.n.)

Kamran

Kamran is a 27-year-old Pakistani who was granted asylum in Croatia in late 2014. A Nigerian friend told him about Taste of Home and he has occasionally cooked for them since 2015. He is a professional cricket player, but used to cook often in his uncle’s restaurant in Pakistan. He doesn’t have a cooking degree because you do not need one to cook in a restaurant in Pakistan. The recipes for korma and kheer, the traditional Pakistani dishes he prepared at the workshop, came from his mother and uncle. He rarely cooks them for himself, as korma and kheer are expensive dishes and the ingredients are hard to come by in Croatia (such as korma masala, a spice blend). To make his workshop korma, he used a garam masala spice blend that was made available by organisers in the workshop kitchen. He added that aroma of the spices fills the house when a dish is being prepared in Pakistan: “It is a beautiful smell, it’s really nice, and here it is not possible”.

He eats mainly Croatian food in Zagreb because Pakistani food ingredients are impossible to find and getting them from his parents in Pakistan would be too costly. The only food from home he singled out as easy and affordable to prepare in Croatia is the Pakistani traditional bread. He feels like at home when he eats it. Even making the bread makes him feel good, reminding him of family and the life he had back home. His migrant journey took him through Greece and Macedonia, where he lived for a while. As Greece offered the same ingredients and spices as Pakistan, he was able to prepare the same food as back home. He is of the opinion that his diet in Croatia would be better if he had a paying job that would make it possible for him to order Pakistani and Asian food ingredients from his Greek friend. Then he would eat the Asian food he grew up with: “Asian food is with taste, it is not tasteless like here. We use many spices and spices are good for health”. During our research, Kamran’s opinions on The Taste of Home project vacillated between sceptical and very positive - the latter happening during periods of more intensive cooking workshops and participation at events in which Taste of Home was involved. Regardless of this, he was always willing to cook with Taste of Home, trying to make it his source of income. Kamran’s example shows just how interaction with the host country population is facilitated by Taste of Home workshops. The intensity of the interaction conditioned Kamran’s opinions on whether to stay in Croatia or move on: the higher the intensity of contact with the local population, the higher was his satisfaction with his own life in Croatia. The exact opposite happened when there was less contact: less interaction meant a less active life, and therefore he took it as a sign that it was time to move on.

Haya

Haya is a 37-year old-Syrian who came to Croatia in September 2015 to seek asylum and provide a better future for her children. Three years ago she lived for a while in Zagreb, where she owned a restaurant together with her Lebanese husband. At the moment, she lives in Zagreb, where she takes care of her three children (one 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twin boys) while her husband is working in Moscow. She is hoping to be granted asylum and permitted to stay in Croatia. While attending a presentation about Syria, she came across information about the Taste of Home and joined in. Her motive was to help the refugees and to be of use, and it just so happened she also liked cooking and loved how making food brings people together. At the workshop, she made fattouche salad and shish barak on rice, both recipes passed on to her by her mother. These are also dishes she frequently prepares in Zagreb for her family. They are very popular not only in Syria, but throughout the whole Middle Eastern region. She brought to the workshop her own sumac from Syria (the main spice in those dishes) and Arab bread bought at the Oriental store in Zagreb (owned by her friends from Syria). In Zagreb, Haya cooks the same way she used to cook back home in Syria and finds all the necessary ingredients in Zagreb. She adds that cooking Middle Eastern food reminds both her and her children of happy life they used to have in Syria. Haya does not bring only hard-to-find-spices back from Syria, but also other ingredients and homemade products like kishk (similar to Croatian “zimnica”). When her stockpile of Syrian kishk runs out, she says, she will ask her parents to send her some more.

Haya’s wish is to become a professional cook, but one needs a degree for it. She would cook both Syrian and Lebanese cuisine, even though she is aware that such food has limited appeal in Zagreb. However, comparing her previous stay in Zagreb with the present one, she admits that people’s tastes have changed, and that they are becoming more open to new flavours. She credits Taste of Home for bringing that broadening of tastes about. Taste of Home is, according to her opinion, also a worthwhile initiative that creates good relationships between asylees and the local population. She feels good in Croatia, safe, while adding that Croatians accept “others” in a good way, and pointing out that living in Zagreb is easy for her. Her children attend Croatian school and are well accepted by their classmates. Her hope is to be allowed the opportunity to continue living here and build a permanent life: “I am happy that I'm here in Zagreb, it's a lovely city for me. I have Croatian friends also here, really good people and friendly and I hope that I will get my positive decision” (for her asylum application; authors' comment).

Haya’s story highlights the importance of asylum seekers being socially included - to be valued and useful members of their local community, doing what they know best and cooperating with their social environment in its entirety.

Samba

Samba is 25 years old and was born in Dakar. He came to Croatia in July 2014 and applied for asylum status, which he was granted. He came into contact with Taste of Home the same year, when CPS staff came looking for information on Senegalese food and recipes. He took part in various activities organised by the Taste of Home, and during the Refugee Days events in September 2015, he cooked for them for the first time. In response to the question regarding what The Taste of Home means to him, he said:

“It means lots of things, a new family for me [italics by the authors], a new collective, great people who I meet there and a great idea. The idea is great because it's full of messages, a new revolution for me... a lot of messages: to show to the rest of these people that we are one and that we can... we share food, different food and food we eat at one plate, and it's unity, the unification of everyone, from everywhere. We can share, to show that we can do something… It’s one of my reasons (why I am taking part in.), because I see it as a big idea, good things that are for me very important, you know…. Unity, peace, love. New family and do what you want”.

His statement clearly shows that the Taste of Home collective means relevant social integration to the asylees, and a sense of belonging (or “creating a new family”) exemplifies both the interactive and identifying aspects of the integration process. Samba likes cooking, and making food and feeding people is for him something beautiful. He wishes to be a professional cook, but, at the same time, doubts the concept of being a “professional”: “things should exist naturally within you… I know who I am, I know my qualities and I know all I am capable of - I know my level, I know what is inside me.” He used to cook alongside his aunt and grew up living with her, so he calls his aunt “mum” too, same as his birth mother. His workshop dish was couscous (thiere in Senegalese wolof), a meat stew cooked with grains, paprika and garlic. It is an everyday dish that can be prepared in many different ways and Samba eats it often in his Zagreb home. Despite some ingredient substitutions (sunflower seed oil for peanut oil), his workshop variant was prepared according to his grandmother’s recipe, the way they make it for a Senegal national holiday. By choosing to prepare a dish that is always prepared for a Senegal national celebration, but preparing it by following his family’s old recipe, Samba created his own transnational area.

In his everyday life, Samba does not eat Senegalese food for lack of ingredients, and does not want to use substitutes because the food then would not taste right. He says he does not want anything sent to him from Senegal because of the cost and adds: “I can survive everywhere”. One habit survived from home, though: eating food with hands, from one bowl, like “at home” because hands are the “original spoon, original fork, original knife”, and eating out of one common plate for him signifies:

“…this is like we are one... we don't care about if you are sick or not, if you are different... I will never become sick if I share the food with someone – that is love for me, love cannot be mixed with anything else, anything bad... Just go and wash yourself, sit and eat... We do not separate people, separation started from there: one plate, two plates, three plates... we separate ourselves and we don't know... the one pot is: we are one”.

During his migration journey, he lived for some time in Greece, and there he ate “normally”, as in Senegal because Greece has shops that stock African ingredients. He is currently employed by the Taste of Home and is about to graduate as a cook. Not only did the collective open up the possibility for this asylee to be successfully integrated, socially, interactively and individually with the realisation of a parallel transnational belonging, but it also added on the possibility of economic integration, as well. Because of everything that happened, he said: “Where people live, life is there, that is my philosophy... you can make your way everywhere” (…) “My life is everywhere, but I live in Croatia”. He finished his interview with these words:“I feel good, I feel great, I feel happy in Croatia, I feel myself…”.

THE TASTE OF HOME AND ITS TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL FIELD

From Akin’s, Kamran’s, Haya’s and Samba’s lived refugee and asylee stories, we can clearly see that they occasionally inhabit transnational social fields and participate in transnational processes (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004:1028). These authors name two distinct “modes of being”: existing and being within the field relating to actual social relationships and being within the field of their everyday practices as individuals.Conversely, the modes of belonging to the transnational social field are related to habits signifying or embodying the identities assumed while forming a meaningful bond with a particular social group. The activities included in this mode of being are not symbolic, they are very specific and visible activities, all denoting belonging (Ibid:1010). All of the narratives - the cooks’ and participants’ - state that both the food they cooked and their participation in the workshop mirrored their mode of being and signified continuity of their life from “over there” and to “here”: their country of origin or countries they lived in while in transit (Greece, Macedonia) and Croatia. The very nature of forced migration affects the possibility of access to food ingredients from their home: Akin choose not to procure them for political reasons, Kamran and Samba deem them too expensive and Haya will go through the trouble of acquiring foods from home only if it is too difficult to prepare a certain meal in Croatia: kishk. None of the cooks emphasised the national character of their dishes - they were all dishes that possessed an individual emotional dimension, associated with their own families, i.e. the people who taught them how to cook and the people whom they shared their food with. Nevertheless, the dishes themselves held “transnational” ingredients. The workshop staff and friends of the asylees procuring hard-to-get ingredients for them are the facilitators of their being in transnational social field, albeit symbolically. The cooking workshops were not mere cooking courses: they reperesented a reinforcement both of the participants’ attitudes (on the importance of the integration of asylees into Croatian society) and the attitudes of the asylees themselves, whose food was warmly accepted, and therefore were they, too.The Taste of Home case study confirms that the incorporation of migrants into their new country and their transnational connections are not binary opposites, that the migrant experience can be viewed as a movement between the new country and the transnational assimilation - a movement that, over time, can vary both in direction and intensity (Ibid. 1011). Samba's musings might illustrate this thesis the best: “Where people live, life is there… My life is everywhere, but I live in Croatia”.

THE TASTE OF HOME ON THE INTERNET

After describing the prevalent mood at the Taste of Home workshops and hearing opinions about it from both cooks and participants, we could safely conclude that the local population is amenable to cultural differences and that Taste of Home is a successful example of various aspects of integration moving in the right direction. But, can we really conclude that? Are the workshop’s participants a true representation of the Croatian society at large, or are they a minority? We turned to the Internet to look for the answer. According toBoyer (2012: 383), the Internet is one of the main points of interest in the field of media anthropology - one that, over the past 40 years, focused its research on the ways in which both creating and receiving communicated media texts and the advance of technology facilitates or influences processes of cultural creation and reproduction.

We could state that what we are witnessing on the Internet is a collection of texts. In considering it as such, the use of the Internet becomes a process of reading and writing texts, and the ethnographer’s task is to develop understandings of meaning lying at the base of textual practices. (Hine 2004: 36)

As an in-depth analysis of media discourse about asylees and the Taste of Home would be well beyond the scope of this case study, our aim was to look into some of Croatian citizens’ opinions about the asylees participating in the Taste of Home initiative. The research started with a Google search for “Taste of Home”. Because of the large volume of results our search generated, we set a time frame and singled out articles published online over the duration of our case study. Our analysis of ten or so articles was based on thematic (discourse) analysis of the content (Bryman 2012:528–536) of the online versions of daily newspapers. The online articles all offered a comment thread section, in which the “wide readership” could post their opinions under a real name or invented online handle.

What follows are the fragments from several texts that outline the way in which events at the Taste of Home were presented.

On 24 February, 2015, “vecernji.hr” published an article under the title: “Emina Bužinkić: We Want to Open a Restaurant Staffed by Asylees”, with a subheader “We wish this restaurant to be a place of integration, and any profit generated would be reinvested into the refugee effort.” The article continues with short passage describing the lives of several asylees and asylum seekers living in Croatia at the moment and the story chronicling the birth of Taste of Home. The interview with E. Bužinkić includes facts about the number of granted asylum applications in Croatia, a story about the cook working in Taste of Home and reports on the plans for forming a cooperative which would be based on the rules of social entrepreneurship. This cooperative would concentrate solely on catering in the beginning, followed by a real restaurant staffed by refugees. “’Taste of Home’ needs to be a place of integration and connection; any profit raised would come back to the refugees living among us and other marginalised society groups.” The article also included a photo gallery with nine pictures of the asylees, of Emina herself and photos of the dishes with recipes attached (Matijević 2015).

The article provoked many comments, here republished with all the grammatical mistakes and misspellings, and the comments themselves generated many likes of the wide readership.

Refugees go home and let Emina, as a good Croatian citizen, open a restaurant staffed by unemployed Croatian citizens living on the dole and invest profit into soup kitchens and shelters for homeless. (novo vrijeme; 88% likes)

It is so nice and humane taking care of the persecuted. What is it, a centre for peace studies? We live in a land of milk and honey, we haven’t even one unemployed person, and every day more and more of our young leave the country. Maybe that centre should leave its ideas IN PEACE. (demokrscanin, 81% likes)

All asylees from Islamic country. They will nicely raise our birth rate. This is the price we pay for being in EU. (Cupcake, 79% likes)

Would ya just look at that name, centre for peace studies, if one wouldnt know what it really is, you might think it’s some university or something, but, lo and behold, it is just twenty or so leeches sitting in the government bog, with just one goal in mind, find homes and settle in the so-called refugees from one bog over… (mileudarcina 1, 86% likes)

The likes of these do not integrate they even order us to accept their way of life. (grevilija, 80% likes)

NO thank you!!!!!! Look at the French, how happy they are now… or maybe Swedes!!! Horror why we need foreigners when our young ones are running away FOR WORK!!!!! This all is on big treason, they want to water down our Croatian national being and that is all there is to it!!!!!!! (kriticko_razmisli, 75% likes)

Asylees should be allowed into the country if they are indeed in need of an asylum, under the condition of assimilation, first and foremost accepting the largest local religion - so we don't fall into the trap, like the Brits did, of growing Muslim terrorists hating all things Christian. (silverback, 75% likes)

I hope this country of mine goes bust soon; we people pay highest taxes so that my government can do ”mumbo-jumbo bullshit” with ”centre for peace studies” ”social entrepreneurship for asylees and so on” .. Our Republic loses tens of thousands of young people per year, and the state wastes money feeding those (half of them turn out to be ISIS fans anyway)… madhouse… we r ”fckd"… (longestmailevercreatedfortrade, 67% likes)

On 16 October, 2015, “nacional.hr” published an article entitled: “THE TASTE OF HOME Asylees Cooked Their National Dishes in Split”. The article reports on the gastronomic show at which the asylees in Croatia prepared their national dishes, along with the charges from Center for Homeless operated by the MoSt Cooperative. The event marked The World Food Day and The Fight Against Poverty Day. The article features quotes by E. Buzinkic on Taste of Home and lists the cities where the event had already taken place - Sisak, Kutina, Čakovec, Rijeka and Pula, adding that, after the Split show, the event will take place in Osijek and Vukovar. The newspaper story is illustrated with photos of the participants, with cooks from Nigeria, Ethiopia and Senegal. One reader commented on it under the name of “Sime Begonja”: “them there your new friends are coming with one big single goal have you seen their motto from yesterday in sweden CATHOLICS EITHER BECOME MUSLIMS OR DIE that is their goal”.

On 20 October 2015, “dobrahrana.jutarnji.hr” published an article on collective’s fundraising efforts under the title: “The Taste of Home: A New Campaign Helping Immigrants Open Restaurant in Croatia”, with a subheader of: “A noble gesture connecting new cultures and offering a new beginning!” The initiative itself is briefly introduced, with a link to a short, two-minute long video clip filmed at one of the workshops that includes interviews with the cooks and participants. At the end of the video clip, one of the cooks makes an appeal for donations in English, as they were trying to raise the EUR 15,000 needed to furnish the cooperative's kitchen in order to start their catering business. The article has two comments:

“Oh, geez, I too would like to open my own restaurant and return back home. Who is willing to help me with their donations???” (Natalija)

“Flirty young hippie bunnies hanging around young black men… I really would like to know just what kind of ethnic cuisine sausage they are interested in.” (Tomislav)

ANALYSIS OF INTERNET ARTICLES

We can conclude from the above mentioned articles that they are written factually, with a lot of photographs included and the overall tone towards refugees, asylees and all the others involved with this collective is positive, i.e. there is a positive media discourse towards the Taste of Home. According toSpitulnik (1993: 295), the most pervasive and dominant paradigm of mass communication process in the 1980s was a linear model consisting of three levels: message production, message transmission and message reception, whereby the message is seen as the key unit of cultural meaning, a powerful means of the refraction and reproduction of society's dominant ideologies. In this paper, we look at the third level: the way in which media messages about the existence and activities of Taste of Home were received by the readers. It is evident that the above mentioned comments stand in stark contrast to the exceptionally positive impressions of the workshop participants and of those who tasted food at presentations, as well as to the positive attitudes of journalists. The first article published in the online edition of the Večernji list was the most commented on: all posts were negative and generated likes from the others. The real factors related to the socio-economic threat that immigrants pose in connection with economic interests (cf.Čačić-Kumpes, Gregurević, Kumpes 2012: 314, 316), economic crisis, high unemployment in Croatia, low birth rate and emigration are evident in the attitudes of those who posted comments, and because all of this asylees are seen as the ones who are taking the already scarce economic resources of local population. On the other hand, there are also symbolic factors (socio-cultural threat) (Ibid.) related to culture, customs, religion and values.

Stuart Hall poses the following questions: how do we represent people and places that are significantly different from us, why is “otherness” such an attractive topic and contested area of representation, what typical forms and representation practices are used in order to represent “difference” in today's popular culture and where do all these stereotypes come from (1997: 225)? Can we explain why representation of “otherness” engages feelings, attitudes, emotions and mobilises fears and anxieties, like the ones we saw in the comments by some of the articles' readers? People who are in any way different from the majority (“them” vs. “us”), are often exposed to a binary form of representation: “through sharply opposed, polarised, binary extremes – good/bad, civilised/primitive, ugly/excessively attractive, repelling-because-different/attractive-bacause–strange-and-exotic.” (Ibid. 229). This thesis is confirmed in the statement of an asylee from Nigeria living in Croatia: “Croatian girls are schizophrenic when it comes to black men. They are either attracted to them for no particular reason except for their being black or reject them for the same reason.” (cf.Dujmović, 2015).

In the light of the arguments ofMary Douglas (1966), most comments see asylees as something undesirable, something that disturbs the order within Croatian society (culture). Symbolic boundaries between cultures keep them “pure”, giving them their unique meaning and identity. Dark-skinned cooks are reduced to the concept of asylees who are, at the moment, the “others”. and since they are different in status and skin colour from the “indigenous” people, we do not need them for there is no work here even for “our people”. Here we enter the domain of stereotypes, one of the features of which is precisely the practise of “closure” and exclusion that symbolically fixes boundaries and excludes everything which does not belong (Hall 1997: 258). Moreover, we have to feed and take care of our own “needy” before we can even think of anything else except sending asylees the message to go somewhere else. The online commentators see multiple dangers/threats: they are going to water down Croatian national being, they take jobs from “our people”, especially the young (who are forced to leave Croatia) and they are going to impose their Muslim faith on us. The last comment does not even take into account the fact that asylees' religion is not mentioned anywhere in the articles. In the given examples, we encounter intertextuality that is defined as the accumulation of meanings across different texts, where one image refers to another, or has its meaning altered by being read in the context of other images (Ibid. 232). We can conclude that the commentators of articles about Taste of Home formed their opinions on numerous other articles on asylees (cf.Župarić-Iljić 2013) and immigrants in general (Franc et al. 2010,Šram 2010,Čačić-Kumpes at al. 2012), in which the authors perceive asylees and immigrants were a socio-economic and socio-cultural threat to Croatian society and competition on the labour market, and that lack of closure towards cultural diversity leads to the exclusiveness of local population towards immigrants (cf.Župarić-Iljić 2013: 209).

Although not directly politically motivated per se, some of the negative discourses in the comment threads can be associated with the first type of symbolic conflict identified by Simon Harrison. This conflict, according toSenjković (2002: 274), can be read as an example of ethnic and nationalist rivalry that increases cultural differences and represents a reflection of the negative tactics of “valuation contest”. Commentators verbally attacked refugees as the “others”, classified them as the ones who are going to impose their faith and such, and saw CPS members as adversaries because they support such “others” and therefore as renegades from the society of “our people”, or even as women of dubious morality (“Flirty young hippie bunnies hanging around young black men”). In some comments, the second type of Harrison’s symbolic conflict, “proprietary competition” can be identified: the intention to employ refugees in some comments is defined as hostile behaviour, and the right to work and earn in Croatia are seen as important collective symbols that primarily belong to the majority community, the Croats.

The mentioned comments on online articles on the Taste of Home are attitude projections of anonymous readers and it can be assumed that there was no interaction between them and seekers of international protection in Croatia. The comments indicate that one part of Croatian society is open neither towards asylees, nor towards people from different cultures, races and faiths.They also show that whatHage (2000) called governing belonging to a nation, for they feel they have a right to the nation (and therefore a legitimate opinion on asylees) and its governing so that Croatia remains “their home”. “This is my nation” is an attitude that can be read in the background of most (if not all) online comments.

CONCLUSION

Given the global migration flows and aged European and Croatian population, it could be assumed that, in the context of Croatia’s EU membership, more and more foreigners will be moving to Croatia in near future (Čačić-Kumpes, Gregurević 2012), and that the Republic of Croatia will be approving more requests for asylum (Župarić-Iljić 2013). However, the “refugee crisis” that started in 2015 as well as the recent emigration of Croatian citizens in search of work and a better standard of living show different migration directions, in and out of Croatian territory. Over the last ten years and in line with new migration flows, new EU programmes, mechanisms and instruments for the promotion of integration were passed or, existing ones were amended.15 In 2011, the European Commission proposed a new European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals16which, among other things, focuses on the increase of social and cultural participation of migrants and activities on local levels. These guidelines are applied through the Taste of Home, the goal of which is frequent interaction between asylees/foreigners and local people by way of public food presentations, frequent presence in media and the like. Although the initiative was launched in Zagreb, promotional events are organised in numerous other places. We believe that, after first having gained experience in the Taste of Home collective, some asylees could find a job in other parts of Croatia, especially on the Adriatic coast, which is faced with a labour shortage in the catering business. Since the goal of the Taste of Home founders was to articulate everything that refugees/asylees/migrants are by means of cooking and thus break down all prejudices and stereotypes, it is precisely through asylees' stay in smaller places and everyday contact with local population that this could be achieved. The organisers believe that cooking proved to be a good means for this, because nobody sees it as a threat or danger. Workshop participants and asylees are of the same opinion. Moreover, they point out, Taste of Home shows society that refugees are able to do something, that they did not come to take away jobs or women from the “indigenous” population, i.e. that they do not want to be a burden to the state. 

According to the qualitative data gained in interviews with asylees and workshop participants, it can be concluded that this programme was successful in terms of the implementation of social, cultural, interactive and identifying integration of asylees, and that it could at the moment provide economic integration for some asylees.17 Involvement with the Taste of Home proved essential for the identity dimension of integration, i.e. feeling of personal satisfaction and belonging, confirmed by asylees' emphasising that they found a “new family”, and the fact that the people who met within this initiative socialise outside it, as well. On the basis of ethnography of the particular, it is evident that integration is a dynamic process, since the opinion and the level of satisfaction about his present situation and life in Croatia of one of the asylees kept changing during our research. 

Without challenging the thesis that the nature of refugee migrations is being “between“ two states, on the basis of data presented in this paper we can conclude that the very dishes asylees (or refugees who were granted protection by a new state) prepare in workshops, regardless of whether they are prepared with the same ingredients as home or with ingredients that attempt to achieve that, represent a cook’s embodied transnational practices and the continuity of his/her stay in Croatia and, on a symbolic (identity) level, in the country of origin since this dish reflects not only what they have been eating since childhood, but their personal views on food and eating. For one of the respondents it is “unnatural” to eat alone, for another it is natural to eat from one bowl because dividing food on plates for each individual means division among people, and the third thinks the Asian food he grew up with is more nutritious and better than food eaten in Croatia.

According to the conducted research, there are two sides to integration. One one hand, the local people that are in direct contact with asylees demonstrate great openness towards cultural and other differences while, on the other, comments on online articles and the likes they receive from others point to a completely opposing view - social distance and a high level of resistance to their becoming a part of Croatian society. Asylees are perceived as a socio-cultural and socio-economic threat. Because of the above mentioned, we confirm the thoughts of C. Geertz:

“Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And, worse than that, the more deeply it goes the less complete it is. It is a strange science whose most telling assertions are its most tremulously based, in which to get somewhere with the matter at hand is to intensify the suspicion, both your own and that of others, that you are not quite getting it right. But that, along with plaguing subtle people with obtuse questions, is what being an ethnographer is like.” (Gerc 1998:44)

The entirely different contexts: the friendly atmosphere and enthusiasm on the part of all who participated in public presentations and workshops and the contrasting, hostile attitude toward asylees-cooks as well as organisers, reveal a multi-field approach to the research of Taste of Home, and the complexity of the issue of the integration of asylees into Croatian society. It is going to be interesting to follow the development of the Taste of Home collective, especially when it comes to their capacity to employ refugees in the cooperative they founded, whereby the fact that the cooperative employs not only asylees but local people too is not to be overlooked. Consequently, questioning positions of power within the Taste of Home collective will certainly be a subject of further research. Since our research was carried out at the very beginning of the Taste of Home project, we think that it will be possible to determine in a more realistic way whether this is an example of the successful integration of asylees and asylum seekers into Croatian society only after some time has passed.