Eating in Solidarity

This is the most banal post you could imagine in support of the immigration demonstrations today, but I had to write something. As anyone who has sniffed at my politics even briefly could probably guess, I fully support the right of undocumented immigrants to legalize their status without criminal prosecution. But I spent today in the library writing papers (incidentally, about migration), instead of out on the streets, so this is my food-blog gesture of solidary.

We eat the way we do because of migration.

Without migrants, South Asia wouldn't have alu gobi.
Without migrants, Britain wouldn't have chicken tikka masala.

Without migrants, Ireland wouldn't have colcannon.
Without migrants, America wouldn't have Guinness.

Without migrants, Italy wouldn't have tomato sauce or polenta.
Without migrants, America wouldn't have pizza.

Without migrants, Thailand wouldn't have sriracha.
Without migrants, America wouldn't have pad thai.

Without migrants, there would be no latkes on the Hanukkah table.
Without migrants, there would be no Hanukkah tables in the US.

Without migrants, Mexico might never have developed the wheat flour tortilla.
Without migrants, I wouldn't be writing this while eating guacamole soft tacos and salsa verde.

All migrations are not the same. But all migrations carry food with them. And if you like to eat, you damn well better like migration.

So come on. Stop deporting mothers with infants. Stop deporting teenagers to countries they don't remember and don't want to see yet. Stop breaking apart communities in the service of a policy goal which will never be met.

We live in a country of immigrants, and we eat the bounty of that every day. So we should be greatful, and we should be happy, and we should always be hungry.