Everyday Life of Bangladeshi Migrants in Hungarian Cities Abstract

Abstract

This paper sets out to understand the everyday lives of Bangladeshi migrants
living in Hungarian cities by exploring their experiences of space. By analysing the findings derived from 28 in-depth interviews conducted with a diverse
sample of Bangladeshi migrants residing in five different cities, the authors aim
to substantiate the following argument: the members of the minority group of
international migrants studied here do not merely passively participate in uneven
geographical development, nor are they merely victims of discrimination and exclusion that are entrenched in unequal power relations. In their daily lives, they
make compromises but also try to resist structural conditions. The authors claim
that these efforts can be seen as steps towards changing urban society, efforts that
make sense in a transnational space. In addition to ontology, however, this paper
also approaches this topic from an epistemological viewpoint, arguing that the
combination of the concepts of everyday life and uneven development can lead
to new results. This approach offers a perspective on the analysis of migration
decisions and the challenges posed by migration, which differs from explanations
based on one-way dependence and the passive role of the disadvantaged. The
other concept used here, the ‘right to the city’, can help to understand the lived
spaces of non-citizen urban dwellers and to put the interpretation of this right
itself into a new, ‘transnational’ perspective.
Keywords: international migration, lived spaces, uneven development, right to
the city