Choosing hybridity: the possibilities and limits of belonging among young adults from mixed Serb–Hungarian families in Serbia

The article examines the negotiation of hybrid identities among young adults from mixed Serb – Hungarian families in Vojvodina, northern province of Serbia, one of Europe’s most ethnically diverse regions. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and Acculturation Theory, the study explores how bilingualism, family dynamics, and societal pressures shape experiences of belonging in a multiethnic, post-conflict context. Based on focus group discussions with young adults, the findings reveal that bilingualism functions as both a bridge and a boundary, reflecting broader social expectations about language, nationalism, and cultural conformity. Participants also display agency through subtle acts of adaptation, resistance, and compromise. Hybridity thus emerges as a form of bounded agency, shaped by coercive social structures but sustained through everyday negotiation and selective cultural practices. By centring the perspectives of mixed-heritage youth, the paper contributes to broader debates on intermarriage, multiculturalism, and the micropolitics of belonging in post-conflict and other multiethnic contexts.