Editorial: Research methods in ethnic and migration studies

The acceleration and diversification of the movement across borders of millions of people has recently implied a heightened relevance of topics such as ethnicity, race and migration in the social sciences. Nevertheless, being migration a highly interdisciplinary and complex issue, the diverse national academic traditions and methodologies of investigation currently existing have up to now hindered the development of a clear framework for the understanding of the phenomenon. Through this special issue HERMES (European Researchers in Migration and Ethnic Studies) attempts to provide a dedicated arena offering European researchers the opportunity to disseminate the results of their investigations in the field of migration and, in particular, of reflecting on fieldwork and/or methodological issues. The eight articles presented here all contribute – in their own ways – to the provision of a reflexive ground for the understanding of methodological choices and options and, hopefully, to the creation of a shared understanding of such issues across disciplines and research traditions.