Internationally, research within the area of health sciences has always suffered from a failure to include certain population groups in quantitative as well as qualitative research. Such population groups include migrant and ethnic minority groups. This bias in inclusion of different population segments has consequences for the representativity and possibility of generalizing study results and consequently may result in policies being designed to meet the needs of only the most resourceful segments of society. The lack of insight in to the experiences, attitudes of practices of certain population groups hence also represents a
democratic problem in terms of ensuring the socially inclusive character of policies. This paper seeks to discuss how to better engage migrant populations and 'gatekeepers' around them in research. The paper takes its point of departure in three recent projects which have all had trouble recruiting participants in spite of efforts to anticipate and overcome barriers to participation. The projects
applied both qualitative and quantitative methods and were all directed at obtaining contact to families with small children of immigrant descendant background from non-western countries. The areas of research were perception and practices related to food, eating and health behavior in every-day life. The paper presents the problems experienced in the projects from two main perspectives, namely the perceived relevance of participation as well among research subjects as among the gate keepers around them, and the consequences
for these two parties involved in study participation. We would like to present and discuss our experiences and 'lessons learned' from these studies with the other
work shop participants.