Refugees Connecting with a New Country through Community Food Gardening

Title: Refugees Connecting with a New Country through Community Food Gardening

Type: Academic Article

Location: Australia

Name of Responsible Persons: Neil Harris, Fiona Rowe Minnis, and Shawn Somerset

Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information, USA

Date: September 5, 2014.

This paper explores how involvement in a community food garden supports African humanitarian migrant connect with their new country- Australia. A cross-sectional study of a purpose sample of African refugees participating in a campus-based community food garden was conducted. Interview data were thematically analyzed revealing three factors which participants identified as important benefits in relation to community garden participation: land tenure, reconnecting with agriculture, and community belonging. The research concludes that community garden participation generates connect with their new country through the allocation of tenure of physical space for garden participants; by supporting a re-connection with the purposeful and familiar activity of growing food crops and by promoting a sense of belonging.

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