Belonging in Translation

Abstract

This paper explores how migration, race, and belonging intersect in the lived experiences of interracial couples within contemporary Hungary. Drawing on qualitative interviews with international students and their partners, the paper offers a small glimpse into how everyday acts of love and intimacy become sites of negotiation, resistance, and translation in a context marked by migration anxieties, populist nationalism, and the lingering legacies of Europe’s colonial imagination. Through these intimate encounters, the paper traces how individuals navigate and reconfigure the emotional and political boundaries of belonging in a society that continues to define itself through ideas of cultural purity and ethnic homogeneity. Guided by postcolonial and decolonial frameworks, the paper interrogates how racial identity, social identity, national identity, and cultural belonging are redefined through interracial intimacy. Drawing on scholars such as Avtar Brah, Homi Bhabha, and Sara Ahmed, it conceptualises intimacy as both a political and affective terrain. It is a site where identity, power, and difference are constantly negotiated. Interracial relationships in Hungary serve as microcosms of broader transnational tensions because they expose how European whiteness is maintained and contested, how migration becomes embodied through love, and how the politics of belonging unfolds within private contexts of society. The research reveals that interracial couples often find themselves inhabiting contradictory positions as both symbols of cosmopolitan openness and as subjects of social scrutiny. They challenge dominant narratives of racial and cultural exclusivity, yet simultaneously encounter subtle and overt forms of exclusion in bureaucratic systems, social interactions, and media representations. Acts such as exploring the Hungarian language, engaging in local cultural practices, or navigating immigration policies become both practical and emotional strategies for negotiating legitimacy and home.  The paper situates intimate relationships within broader conversations about migration, citizenship, and postcolonial recognition. It demonstrates how the private sphere is deeply entangled with public discourses of nationhood and race, revealing how belonging is experienced not only through legal status but through affect, care, and everyday negotiation. The analysis contributes to interdisciplinary debates on the politics of recognition and racialisation in Central and Eastern Europe. It also encourages the decolonial reimagining of identity in transnational contexts.  Ultimately, the paper argues that interracial couples in Hungary inhabit ‘in-between spaces’. Their experiences illuminate the tensions between love and exclusion, belonging and otherness, and stability and displacement. In foregrounding these lived realities, the study reconsiders how intimacy itself can become a decolonial practice.