Italian Food Businesses and the Construction of Italianness in Late-Nineteenth-Century Brussels: Enterprises, Migrants and Meanings

Contrary to most studies of food and migration, this dissertation has explored little of what migrants actually ate at home. Rather, a focus on the public aspects of Italian foodways in latenineteenth- century Brussels has revealed the multiple, complex, and intriguing ways in which Italian migrants used food and business. In the long-term undertaking that is socio-cultural adaptation, migrants employ the business of food not only to prosper economically but also for purposes of self-representation that strengthen communal and collective bonds. In untangling these Italian representations in Brussels between 1876 and 1914, I identified two basic and crucial processes that created meaning: the first involved adapting food, businesses, and practices, the second constructing identities. Because Italian food entrepreneurs used both these processes to produce new meanings for their experiences, which resulted in social change, my study ultimately provides concrete and practical evidence of the innovative forces migrants embody and the creative powers they possess.