In Europe, blood for transfusion is collected by national blood establishments Stimulated by EU policy guidelines on voluntary non-remunerated blood donation, they seek to persuade the population by emphasizing blood donation as a citizenship virtue and act of solidarity Despite sufficient blood supply, blood establishments insufficiently reach ethnic minorities Existing research has mainly asked why minorities do not donate, identifying multiple barriers experienced by minorities While this is of vital importance to increase donation rates among ethnic minorities, the blood procurement system itself remains largely unquestioned From a sociological viewpoint, this is striking, for it ignores how the non-participation of ethnic minorities challenges the basic architecture of the blood procurement system as a Western beacon of citizenship and solidarity This project, therefore, asks, why don’ minorities donate within the current system? To answer this question, the project proposes a country-comparison between Belgium and the UK The project, first, explores how ethnic minorities challenge the organization of blood collection, both from an organizational point of view and from the minorities’perspective Second, it seeks to understand whether blood donation by ethnic minorities could influence their position in society in general, both in terms of how they and others perceive them as citizens, and in terms of minority- majority solidarity