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.