Creating hospitality through food businesses: Narratives from New Zealand women with refugee backgrounds
Abstract
Securing meaningful employment is essential for achieving global justice, yet women with refugee backgrounds often face significant barriers to employment in their host countries. Starting a business in the food and hospitality sector has emerged as a viable alternative, with low capital requirements, minimal language barriers, and opportunities to showcase ethnic cuisines. This chapter explores how women with refugee backgrounds use food hospitality businesses to challenge the stigmatising labels often attached to them. Using memory-work methodology, seven women with refugee backgrounds who started food businesses in New Zealand volunteered to share their narratives. The research revealed two key themes: First, women with refugee backgrounds created a sense of home by practising their cultural heritage of providing hospitality in their food businesses; second, women with refugee backgrounds used their food businesses as platforms for providing advocacy for other people. This research underscores the transformative power of hospitality businesses as vehicles for social integration and active participation in shaping more equitable communities.
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Publication Title
Tourism and Hospitality for Humanity
Publisher
Edward Elgar Publishing
School
School of Business and Law
Copyright
subscription content
First Page
14
Last Page
31
Comments
Bazrafshan, S., Cockburn-Wootten, C., & McIntosh, A. (2025). Creating hospitality through food businesses: Narratives from New Zealand women with refugee backgrounds. In Tourism and Hospitality for Humanity (pp. 14–31). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035344307.00007