Social Research and ‘Race’ Policy Framing in Britain and France

Abstract

This article assesses the effect of social research on the origins and evolution of race frames and race policy-making in Britain and France. Social research can provide new ideas and information within an existing system, and in so doing, it may spur a shift in policy frames. Social research may seldom be the most important influence on policy frames or policy outcomes, but its timing, its fit with the interests of powerful actors and the ways in which it becomes institutionalised in the national political scene can increase the odds of its affecting policy trajectories and can enhance its potential for resolving the dilemmas that often accompany debates about migration and integration in contemporary Europe.