Immigration and Culinary Change

Today I'm sharing my article from December 26, 2025, "When Dinner Stops Being Ours: Cuisine, Immigration, and the Quiet Erosion of Belonging." I challenge the idea—pushed by folks like Piers Morgan—that mass immigration is worth it because it spices up "bland" Western food. While new flavors can be great, I argue through personal stories of smoking Southern barbecue in the Hudson Valley and connecting to my Mississippi roots that cuisine is far more than taste: it's a sensory anchor to identity, family, region, and nation. From Thanksgiving turkey to Fourth of July grills, shared foods build quiet solidarity. Yet fast food, global trade, and demographic shifts are quietly replacing our culinary inheritance, eroding belonging in the process. We should cherish and pass down our own traditions first—because when dinner stops being ours, a piece of home slips away.

https://jonharris.substack.com/p/when-dinner-stops-being-ours