Integration into and through sports? Sport-activities for migrant children and youths

Bibliographic Data

ID6145231
AuthorsKarin Kittelmann Flensner (0000-0002-5192-6327, University West, corresponding author), Peter Korp (0000-0001-7258-9967, University of Gothenburg), Eva‐carin Lindgren (0000-0002-8345-8994, Halmstad University)
Year2020
Volume18
Issue1
Pages64-81
Publication date2020-09-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal for Sport and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1613-8171 • E-ISSN: 2380-5919
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/16138171.2020.1823689
OpenAlexW3088963578
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited40

Migration over recent years has meant that issues of integration are high on the agenda. Sports clubs are considered important settings for promoting integration. This notion is reflected in national and international policy documents. This study focuses on how leaders in a non-profit sports club, operating in a community where a majority have a migrant background, work with the stated goal of promoting integration. The aim of this study is to explore how leaders interpret and negotiate their explicit assignment to promote integration and counteract segregation and how they try to implement strategies to reach these goals and also to explore how participants experience the sports club's activities related to aspects of integration. The study takes an ethnographic approach with participant observations and interviews. The results indicate that the leaders' work in terms of integration was related to negotiating diversity, norms, rules and language. Both leaders and participants highlight how the activities enhance feelings of trust despite racism in society and how the leaders worked to create relationships and to make the activities into safe spaces. Whether this work contributes to integration is, however, debatable and the leaders emphasised inclusion as their main strategy and goal

Club · Diversity (politics · Ethnography · Feeling · Inclusion (mineral · Negotiation · Political science · Public relations · Racial integration · Social integration · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development

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