Food practices that immigrant women bring with them serve as both a dynamic element of exchange and mutual obligation between immigrant families, and a means of gaining entry into the local host society's social and economic life. As long as male migrants live in workers' lodgings and their meals are prepared and taken communally, the scope for the development of social relationships outside the occupational realm seldom arises. Home-cooked meals made by women, on the other hand, create opportunities for exchanges between families as they …