Workpackage 2 'Immigrant' Focus Groups
EU Fifth Framework Programme Improving Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base Key Action: Socio-Economic Research Cluster: Migrants, Ethnic Minorities and Social Exclusion/Integration (Project Acronym: ‘XENOPHOB’, Contract No. HPSE-CT-2002-00135) The European Dilemma: Institutional Patterns and Politics of 'Racial' Discrimination WorkPackage 2 ‘Immigrant’ Focus Groups Responsible for WP2: England and Austria Project Coordinator: Professor Masoud Kamali Reference period: May - August 2003 November 2003 WorkPackage 2 1 Introduction to WorkPackage 2 The main objectives of WorkPackage 2 were to i) investigate through focus group discussions the experiences, understandings, and strategies of immigrants and minorities and ii) to establish an archive of the voices of immigrants across the axes of Europe. This Introduction provides a general overview of the research methodology employed to these ends, and also includes a discussion of the partners’ research plan in more specific detail. An Overview of the Focus Group Methodology The focus group method was the main form of data collection used in WorkPackage 2. As the general aim of this phase of the research was to provide a platform for migrants’ voices, it was important to choose a discourse-centred method that would facilitate this. Previously focus groups have been used to good effect in a number of key social scientific studies addressing racism and discrimination, such as Gamson (1992), Essed (1991), Wodak et al (1999), and Lamont (2000). As focus group research emphasizes the interaction of the participants and the construction, in a group setting, of arguments, ideas and themes it was decided by the lead partners that this was the most suitable methodological approach to adopt for this phase of the research.
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