Street raciology: migrants, knowledge production, and the construction of belonging

This article introduces “street raciology” to theorise how Polish migrants in post-2004 Britain vernacularly produce racial knowledge. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Bristol, it shifts analytical focus from how migrants are racialised to how they actively engage in racial categorisation to navigate British diversity. The concept captures the improvised classification work that serves social ordering and boundary-policing in everyday interactions. Street raciology operates through discursive integration: positive self-representation aligns migrants with the white majority, while negative other-representation distances them from non-white minorities. Through grassroots invention of new categories, spontaneous bonding over narratives of violence, and dehumanising humour, migrants perform belonging within Britain's racial hierarchy. Ultimately, street raciology serves as a tool for belonging construction – a vernacular transformation of racial discourses that renders Poles similar to the white majority, offering a precarious pathway to claiming membership in British society.