We also show the damages of Italy’s institutional and everyday racism: how it pushes new generations of Black, Muslim and minoritised Italians abroad and the scars it leaves on their sense of identity and belonging. For many, post-Brexit Britain remains desirable compared to this context. 6/6

Yet ‘meritocratic Britain’ is a practical, fuzzy ‘map’: it is transformed by the experience of living in Britain (sometimes leading to new migrations) and co-exists with critique of ‘British’ racism. 5/6

Key findings: participants don’t invoke ‘meritocracy’ as a coherent ideology, but are attracted by imaginaries of ‘meritocratic Britain’ which resonate with their search for recognition, equality and security 4/6

We draw on interviews with Black and Muslim Italians living in post-Brexit Britain and Du Bois’ ‘double consciusness’, which helps us understand racialised minorities’ relationship with hegemonic narratives in more nuanced ways than ‘strong’ ideology theories 3/6

By centring racialised minorities' double-consciousness, practical knowledge & struggles for recognition, we highlight the limitations of false consciousness, misinformation and psychological compensation as explanations for meritocratic belief 2/6

The other implication is that talking about migrants & minorities as human beings is a middle class soft sentimentalism, so no need to engage with the contents of the white paper. Hence why not simply vote for Reform? It's the perfect performative class politics party