Voluntary Sport Clubs are no Fast-Track to Refugee Integration

Bibliographic Data

ID6459573
AuthorsSolveig Straume (0000-0001-7719-303X), Hallgeir Gammelsæter (0000-0002-0518-2646)
Year2025
Volume36
Issue4
Pages483-493
Publication date2025-04-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueVoluntas Revista Internacional de Filosofia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2179-3786 • E-ISSN: 1573-7888
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11266-025-00738-y
OpenAlexW4409918402
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited47

Drawing from 41 qualitative interviews with Norwegian voluntary football clubs and local public stakeholders, this paper explores whether voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) are a convenient measure for including refugees in society. The following research questions are addressed: what expectations of refugee inclusion initiatives do local stakeholders hold towards voluntary sport clubs, and how do the clubs grapple with pursuing non-sport and sport objectives and systems simultaneously? The results show that the football clubs face high expectations of refugee inclusion. Although the football clubs generally understand and accept the expectations, inclusion and integration activities are costly in terms of time and competence and challenge the club’s capacities. Two competing logics are identified in the data: a functional logic passively welcoming everyone that are keen and resourced to play football and a moral and proactive logic, that expects the clubs to reach out to include refugees that are alien to the organization of indigenous sport. We find that despite external expectation, the sport clubs are not fast-tracks to refugee integration because the logic sustaining their existence and practices are at odds with the logic prescribing refugee integration through sport

Aeronautics · Operating system · Political science · Refugee · Track (disk drive · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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