The impact of migration on local (UK) food systems: opportunities and challenges for public health

Place, which plays a focal role in framing health inequalities, is gaining increasing attention in the food system, through the transformation of its context and composition. Migration, the movement of people, things and ideas, is also a key feature in the transformation of place that shapes the food system. As a frame, place integrates multiple social, economic, cultural and structural factors across different levels, manifest through the lived experiences of its various actors. In the UK, Brexit and the more recent socio-economic crises have brought place into sharp focus, exposing food system vulnerabilities and unequal patterns of food production, security, sustainability, consumption and outcomes. These gaps reinforce calls for public health to recognise the complex linkages of people in place, in order to design effective local policies for population health. In this thesis, I employed a mixed-method design and conceptual framework underpinned by Lefebvre’s spatial theory and Doreen Massey’s concept of space to explore the interaction between people and place. The research had three main objectives. 1. To review the literature for evidence of migration on the food environment, including a qualitative evidence synthesis of host experience of (migrant) ethnic food; 2. To explore local experiences of food places through a comparative case study of two areas with a high and low migrant density (qualitative) and 3. To determine the association between UK household food purchases and migrant density using linked Census - Kantar Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) Panel data (quantitative). The findings, which suggest implications for public health policy, elucidate the importance of context that operates across scales in place; the fluidity of boundaries and complexity of cultural appropriation.