Same Difference? Researching racism and immigration

Our focus is on how empirical research can engage with and intervene in the intimacies between race and immigration discourses and practices. We take into account the shape-shifting incarnations of race as a “floating signifier” (Hall, 1996) in British immigration politics and the continuing affective charge of being seen to be racist. Our examples come from a collaborative multi-method study, “Mapping Immigration Controversy”. Looking specifically at the formulation of survey questions and the focus group method, we discuss how the methods can produce and/or elicit linkages, as well as surprising lines of flight, between racism and xenophobia. We conclude by reflecting on the role of critical methodologies in the present conjuncture of British race and immigration politics, marked by huge political and economic uncertainty and upheaval.