Ethnic Restaurants, Immigrant Lives, and Elastic Citizenship in Neoliberal Times

Abstract:This article traces the emergence of an elastic political life emanating from ethnic restaurants vis-à-vis the sinister elasticity of neoliberalism. Upon establishing ethnic food as a paradigmatic case of elastic food that cannot fully replicate the authenticity of the original but still evokes a genuine feeling of being at home among immigrants, it further illustrates how ethnic restaurants provide an informal venue for immigrants to acquire inclusion, belonging, and rights in ways that are at once illusive and real. Terming this formation elastic citizenship, wherein immigrants reanimate their holistic-embodied lives as citizens in circuitous and nonlinear ways, the article points to its surprising political significance and strategic implications for rights-based movements: an elastic politics that 1) focuses on citizenship life beyond formal citizenship rights, 2) targets the market and civil society, and 3) shifts back to the state over the long run in contesting the resilient elasticity of neoliberal democracy.