BurmAmerican Foodscapes: Refugee Re-settlement and Resilience

ABSTRACT This essay examines the resettlement of Burmese refugees in the United States through the lens of food. Looking specifically at Christian community gardens, corporatized meat processing, a feature film, and nonfiction book, I analyze how Karen refugees have participated in U.S. food economies and investigate processes of selective and serial migration, religion, representation, and community-building. “Critically juxtaposing” two different, although related, case studies enables a preliminary mapping of how refugees from Burma/Myanmar have resettled in the United States in the early twenty-first century, with a focus on legibility, racialization, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and mutual aid.