Fortress Europe in the field: academics, immigrants, and methodological considerations for educational studies

Abstract

This article addresses the difficulty of local-level qualitative educational research in Amsterdam in light of changes related to contemporary political discourse on decades of immigration, especially from the 1970s onward, and increasingly critical assessments of Dutch education in the literature. It considers recent developments in the Netherlands while taking into account similar processes elsewhere in the European Union, with the aim of understanding taboos and problems associated with research on immigration, racism, and discrimination. Specifically, we utilize one researcher’s efforts to gain access to educationally based field sites to focus attention on the links between contextual political discourses and policies excluding immigrants with efforts to sociologically examine the experiences of immigrants. We conclude with a discussion of broader challenges faced by social scientists, including the benefits and disadvantages of having outsider status, attempting to utilize ethnographic methodology abroad when scrutinizing politically sensitive topics.