Grubiša Iva: Okus doma: kulturnoantropološki osvrt na integraciju migranata u Zagrebu

Iva Grubiša: Taste of Home: a cultural anthropological review of the integration of migrants in Zagreb

The book Taste of Home: a cultural anthropological review of the integration of migrants in Zagreb is the result of field research in which the author questioned the possibilities for the integration of migrants in the capital of Croatia, and through a case study of the collective of the same name.

By what practices do the members of the Taste of Home inscribe themselves and their experiences into the space and life of the city, and what is the relationship between engagement in the collective on the one hand and experience life in Zagreb on the other hand; in what ways is the subjective impression of integration interwoven with engagement in Taste of Home and what roles do food and culinary experience play in the work of the collective and in the lives of its members; are some of the basic research questions on which this study is based.

Okus dom, the collective from which the book got its title, has for more than ten years of work strived for social, cultural and economic emancipation and the encouragement of quality integration of marginalized migrant groups by collecting and sharing recipes and the stories of the people behind them, organizing culinary workshops and similar content, and starting a catering service. Over the years, it has gathered people from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Croatia. Starting with a volunteer idea of collecting recipes from asylum seekers then placed in the shelter in Kutina, which was launched in 2006 by the Center for Peace Studies, Okus doma was formalized in early 2016 as a Cooperative for intercultural cooperation, within which a catering service was launched that employed several migrants.

The book follows the work of Okus doma in the first year since the Cooperative was founded and the catering work was started, and therefore can be read as a document of time. On its pages, the author follows the members of Okus dom who recall their lives in Zagreb before they joined the work of the collective and describe, and partly the author herself witnesses, how their lives changed after they joined it.

Analytically, the book is divided into two parts; the first, which examines the city and the experiences of the author's interlocutors in the context of their involvement in the Taste of Home, and the second, in which the focus shifts to the role that culinary experiences and practices play in the work of the collective and the interlocutors' lives. If you are interested in the diverse stories and experiences of the city from a migrant's perspective, and answers to questions such as whether and how food can become a medium for bringing together assumed differences between migrants as Others and the local population, getting out of structurally imposed passivity and creating a home, you can find the answers in the book by author Iva Grubiša.