Where our team facilitated focus groups with bilingual co-facilitators, we worked with the co-facilitator to interpret key themes and associated cultural nuances and insights. Focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim. This report includes quotes and authentic language (inclusive of expletive language) to signify participants’ passion and expressiveness. 3.6. Ethics approval An ethics application for the research was submitted for review by the New Zealand Ethics Committee on 15 May 2020 and a revised application was submitted on 15 June 2020. Ethics approval was received on 15 June 2020. 3.7. Strengths and limitations Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally based research on racial discrimination often takes a variety of methodological approaches. Qualitative research is a common way of exploring migrants’ experiences of racism and discrimination, typically in individual interview or focus group settings (Carangio et al., 2020). With this type of qualitative research, researchers normally focus on one ethnic or religious group (e.g., Asian, Muslim etc.). Our research approach involved conducting multiple focus groups with Māori, tauiwi and Pākehā ethnic groups. This provided all participants with a platform to voice/share their opinions. The qualitative research methodology allowed the research team to gain insights into the complex nature of drivers of migrants’ experiences of racism from diverse cultural perspectives. The research team’s approach to engaging with all participants created a safe space for them to actively participate in focus group discussions. Ethnically matched focus group facilitators from the research team (Māori, Pacific, Asian and Pākehā) were provided. Although most focus groups were conducted in English, members of the research team provided options for te reo Māori and Samoan languages and worked alongside bi-lingual co-facilitators for Asian focus groups where required. The synergistic nature of focus group discussions used in this research enabled participants to build on each other’s insights in ways that would be less possible in individual interviews. Focus groups also provoked rationalisation and explicit reasoning and helped to unpack more nuanced understandings of different points of discussion. In reading the report it is important to consider: www.malatest-intl.com Drivers of racism – March 2021 40