23,500 immigrant and ethnic minority people were interviewed face-to-face
in all 27 EU Member States during 2008.
In addition 5,000 people from the majority population living in
the same areas as minorities were interviewed face to face in 10
Member States to allow for comparison of results concerning certain
key questions.
Groups of respondents were selected for interview in each Member
State on the basis of:
- Information supplied to the FRA by its Racism and Xenophobia
Network (RAXEN) of 27 National Focal Points (NFPs), which provide
the Agency with detailed national annual reports on different
minorities’ vulnerability to discrimination and victimisation
in each Member State;
- Identification of the largest minority group or groups in each
country, which had to reach a minimum overall size of 5% to be
sufficient for random sampling in specific areas;
- Availability to be surveyed in more than one Member State,
which allowed for the creation of ‘aggregate’ groups – such as
‘North Africans’ – for comparison of results between countries.
The results of this survey are representative for the groups surveyed
in the areas where the research was undertaken.