Social discourse of prejudice towards immigrants in the province of Almeria

Abstract

Abstract Over the past few years, a great deal of research on what is known as new racism has been carried out in our country. Most of these studies respond to the apparent present tendency to express ethnic prejudice in more subtle and less extreme forms than in previous recent History. Subtle racism, modern racism, and symbolic racism are some of the terms that have been coined to describe current ethnic prejudice. Most of the studies on new racism in Spain resort to quantitative methodology, mainly using translations of questionnaires that have been developed in other countries. However, there are few studies that have explored and analysed the reality of new racism using qualitative research techniques, Given the novelty of this phenomenon and the social nature of prejudice, the focus group technique is suggested as an adequate tool for the analysis of racial attitudes. In the present paper results obtained with this methodology are described, showing the different and diverse ways in which attitudes towards immigrants are expressed in our particular social context. For achieving this objective, the content analysis technique is combined with the strategy of qualitative analysis of discourse.