To be respectable, to be good – aspirations of young people in the context of everyday precariousness in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This article explores how young people navigate their aspiration to education and work within precariousness in a camp in Bangladesh. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at an Urdu-speaking Bihari camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the findings presented in this paper illustrate how gender and generational expectations play mediating roles in young people’s aspiration formation. The discussions present that the relationship between aspiration construction and affective orientations for young people is more complex than often imagined. The findings shed light on the importance of having a more nuanced and relational understanding of young people’s affective expressions and experiences that navigate their aspiration formation and shape experiences of sacrifice, suffering, seclusion, and hope.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography
• aspiration
• childhood
• Bangladesh
• Bihari community

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Bihari community in Bangladesh has their origin in Bihar and a few other states in India who were displaced from India to the then East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) during the separation of India and Pakistan from the British Raj in 1947. During the war between Bangladesh and Pakistan in 1971, Bihari community started living in camp-based informal settlements which continues to be home for many. People living in the camp are historically, ethnically, linguistically, and structurally marginalised and their struggles still continues as they navigate their ways to access to human rights.

2 I GBP is equivalent to 100 Bangladeshi taka.