Conditional citizenship in the UK: Polish migrants’ experiences of diversity

Abstract

This paper explores Polish experiences of lived diversities in the UK through the lens of their precarious socio-economic status and ambivalent racial identity. Using the concept of conditional citizenship, the article explores how being only tentatively accepted in British society affects Polish migrants’ understandings of British diversity. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of Polish migrants’ lived diversities, this paper exposes the repertoires of actions that individuals apply in different social contexts in the process of learning to live with diversity. It advances the academic debate on everyday multiculturalism through an exploration of the relationship between conditional citizenship and lived diversities and contributes to an understanding of migrants’ racism by contextualising it within national hierarchies of belonging.