Perché una ricerca non standard?

Many migration studies are devoted to the representations that local residents have about foreigners. Less numerous are the research focusing on the representations that foreigners have of the native majority or other minorities. The book of which this essay is part shows the results of a study conducted between 2010 and 2011, by which we wanted to put ourselves in listening immigrants from China, often the victims of stereotypes and prejudices, because they are considered members of a community " closed and isolated". How Italians are, in their eyes? To answer this question we interviewed 41 Chinese immigrants who live permanently in Rome. The in-depth interviews allowed us to collect stories and life experiences: this was the main communication vehicle for the emergence of representations and values. The essay is methodological. In the first part I deal with the differences and the possibility of integration between qualitative and quantitative research. In the second part I describe the features of the qualitative approach that are best suited to the objectives our research ( to make the interviewee protagonist of a process of listening , build empirical material as little as possible affected by the researcher's conceptual schemes , etc.) and main problems of our research (interview people for which the Italian language can be a barrier difficult to overcome , especially when you ask them to talk about attitudes, opinions and values).