Rethinking Pan-Arab Collective Life in Hungary: Social Space, Boundaries, and Interaction

Sammari, Tayssir (2026) Rethinking Pan-Arab Collective Life in Hungary: Social Space, Boundaries, and Interaction. SZOCIOLÓGIAI SZEMLE, 36 (2). pp. 65-87. ISSN 1216-2051

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Abstract

This paper examines how cross-national Pan-Arab social relations are organized in Hungary among individuals who share linguistic and cultural references while differing in national background, migration trajectory, social position, and normative orientation. Drawing on a relational social-space perspective, the study focuses on how proximity, boundaries, and unequal positions are negotiated within this shared environment. The analysis is based on 30 semi-structured interviews conducted between October 2025 and January 2026. The findings show that Pan-Arab relations are structured through different combinations of cultural and linguistic familiarity, normative compatibility, practical accessibility, and social distance. Participants navigate national, regional, and broader Pan-Arab forms of proximity while negotiating differences in values, everyday practices, political orientations, and socioeconomic positions. Cultural familiarity can facilitate interaction while increasing exposure to judgment and social expectations, producing relationships in which relational proximity can coexist with normative distance. The analysis also identifies shifting hierarchies related to linguistic accommodation, socioeconomic resources, migration trajectories, and social evaluation. The study identifies the Pan-Arab level as a significant cross-national scale of migrant social organization and shows how familiarity and internal difference become relationally organized within the Hungarian migration context.

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