Lived citizenship experiences of highly-skilled migrants in Budapest and Athens : the emergence of patriotic cosmopolitan citizens

Abstract

This study explores the lived citizenship experiences of highly-skilled migrants through the analysis of 62 semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire (N=177) conducted in Budapest and Athens between October 2022 and February 2024. The study aims to understand and explain how citizenship is understood and appropriated by highly skilled migrants who develop multi-layered attachments as highly mobile individuals, reflecting on their everyday transnational lives in the urban setting of Budapest and Athens. The study suggests that migrants' understanding of citizenship is shaped based on an amalgamation of legal-political status laden with rights and duties, and an identity and multi-layered sense of belonging derived from their lived socio-economic, socio-cultural, and emotional experiences. This study defines lived citizenship as a sum of the relational process involving experiences of belonging and coexistence that individuals undergo in everyday life within and beyond states, in both public and private realms. The research argues that highly skilled migrants’ experiences and narratives demonstrate a distinct understanding of citizenship, which is conceptualized in this study as patriotic cosmopolitan citizenship, turning them into hybrid citizens. The study advances the analytical framework and thinking on the foundation, manifestations, and operationalization of citizenship from below, underlining the significance of affective and subject-defining aspects. This empirical research goes beyond the existing studies which focus on policy-oriented, macro-level analyses of highly-skilled migration, presenting a unique contribution to the production of knowledge on highly skilled migrants in Budapest and Athens.