Latino National Survey (LNS) Focus Group Data, 2006

The focus groups conducted by the research team for the project presented here offer precisely this convergence of both breadth and depth. The team used a common protocol to guide discussion in fifteen focus groups -- with more than 150 participants in nine cities across eight states -- that were designed to include Spanish and English-speaking respondents, in different regions of the country, with differing compositions by generation and country of origin. The number and range of the participants in these Latino focus groups are unique in the social science literature. This study presents the results of a unique data set, the results of fifteen focus groups conducted across the United States with Latino residents, including foreign-born -- both legal and undocumented immigrants and native-born. These data provide more range than allowed by the typical interview-based project and not only give key insights into Latino residents' thoughts about community, language, discrimination, ties to their countries of origin, and the like, but also provide some sense of participants' explanations of their reasoning and motivations, something not achievable through structured survey data alone.

本文所介绍的研究项目中，研究团队开展的焦点小组（focus groups）访谈，恰好实现了广度与深度的有机融合。该团队采用统一的讨论提纲，开展了15场焦点小组访谈，覆盖美国8个州的9座城市，共有超150名参与者；访谈对象涵盖西班牙语与英语使用者，分布于美国不同区域，且在代际结构与原籍国构成上各具差异。此类拉丁裔焦点小组的参与者规模与覆盖范围，在社会科学研究文献中尚属独特。本研究呈现的是一套独特数据集的分析结果，该数据集基于在美国各地开展的15场焦点小组访谈，访谈对象为拉丁裔居民，其中既包括外国出生的移民（含合法与非法移民），也包括本土出生的拉丁裔群体。相较于常规的访谈类研究项目，本数据集的覆盖范围更广；其不仅能为我们深入理解拉丁裔居民关于社区、语言、歧视、原籍国联结等议题的看法提供关键视角，还能呈现参与者对自身思考逻辑与行为动机的阐释——这是仅依靠结构化调查数据无法实现的研究价值。