Abstract
The unprecedented growth in the number of forced migrants in the 2010s was met with varying political responses in European countries. Going beyond the binary dichotomy of hostility and hospitality, this article is based on an innovative methodology for understanding the different political approaches to migration reception and the ways in which migrants were welcomed through sport. Analysis is based on a qualitative inventory of sports programmes (N = 202) in four European countries (England, France, Germany, Italy). Inductively from the above-mentioned objectives, we first typologised “political philosophies” in the use of sport, which are (i) “integration”; (ii) “emancipation”; and (iii) “protection”. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) between the criteria for analysing sports programmes reveals oppositions between assimilationist and multiculturalist tendencies, and political or apolitical claims. Finally, based on a hierarchical ascendant classification (HAC), we find three types of sports programmes significantly linked to different host countries: (I) “integrationist” in Germany; (II) “emancipatory” in France and Italy; and (III) “humanitarian” in England. Our results suggest that a political analysis of these sports programmes contributes to a better understanding of how the national contexts of migrant welcome have differed since the “crisis” of the 2010s.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Notes
The research only looked at England and not the whole of the UK because too few sports programmes have been identified (Wales, n = 3, Scotland, n = 3 and Northern Ireland, n = 0).
We found that in the UK there are many small grassroots organisations offering sports programmes, which we found fairly easily through Amnesty UK’s Football Welcomes map, but that descriptions of the programmes and their objectives are not often accessible, making them unusable for analysis.
By the migrant reception 'crisis' of the 2010s, we mean the entire decade, as the vast majority of sports programmes were primarily aimed at forced migrants arriving from 2010 onwards and throughout the decade.
To confirm the precision and coherence of coding, one of the authors has independently coded a random sample of 20% of the sports programmes used in the analysis (Table 7 in Appendix). This coding was carried out iteratively, corresponding with the first author when questions arose concerning the categorisation criteria (Stoltz & Taylor, 2017). Clarifying the interpretative reasoning used in the analysis makes it possible to go beyond the subjective effects that are often pervasive in the coding of qualitative data (Armstrong et al., 1997). We obtained a value of κ = 0.855 in the Cohen’s kappa test on the sample’s coding, which shows a “nearly perfect” agreement between the analysts (Landis and Koch, 1977, 165). This text confirms the random judgement-free concordance between the sports programmes and a political philosophy.
We calculated that 28% of the programmes with the main political philosophy of integration as we have defined it display objectives related to “intercultural exchange” and “living together”, and the “coming together of different nationalities”.
References
Agergaard, S. (2018). Rethinking sports and integration: Developing a transnational perspective on migrants and descendants in sports. Routledge.
Agergaard, S., Michelsen la Cour, A., & Gregersen, M. T. (2016). Politicisation of migrant leisure: A public and civil intervention involving organised sports. Leisure Studies, 35(2), 200–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2015.1009848
Arnaud, L. (2001). Sous le maillot, la race? Idéologie et discours sportifs dans les politiques d’intégration des «minorités ethniques» en France et en Grande-Bretagne. Politix. Revue des sciences sociales du politique, 14(56), 165–183.
Arnaud, L. (2008). La démocratie culturelle à l'épreuve du sport. Sociétés contemporaines, 1, 25–47. https://doi.org/10.3917/soco.069.0025
Armstrong, D., Gosling, A., Weinman, J., & Marteau, T. (1997). The place of inter-rater reliability in qualitative research: An empirical study. Sociology, 31(3), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F0038038597031003015
Barou, J. (2021). The different integration processes of refugees in France. In O. Sacramento, E. Challinor, & P. G. Silva (Eds.), Quest for refuge: Reception responses from the Global North (pp. 63–82). Húmus.
Benzécri, J. P. (1973). L'analyse des données: L’analyse des correspondances. Bordas.
Bergholz, L., Stafford, E., & D’Andrea, W. (2016). Creating trauma-informed sports programming for traumatized youth: Core principles for an adjunctive therapeutic approach. Journal of infant, child, and adolescent psychotherapy, 15(3), 244–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2016.1211836
Blasius, J., & Thiessen, V. (2006). Assessing data quality and construct comparability in cross-national surveys. European Sociological Review, 22(3), 229–242. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jci054
Bourdieu, P., Chamboredon, J. C., & Passeron, J. C. (1973). Métier de sociologue (p. 1968). Mouton/ De Gruyter.
Bourdieu, P., & Saint Martin, M. D. (1978). Le patronat. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 20(1), 3–82. https://doi.org/10.3406/arss.1978.2592
Brubaker, R. (1992). Citizenship and nationhood in Germany and France. Mass.
Busetta, A., Mendola, D., Wilson, B., & Cetorelli, V. (2021). Measuring vulnerability of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(3), 596–615. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1610368
Canning, V. (2019). Abject asylum: Degradation and the deliberate infliction of harm against refugees in Britain. Justice, Power and Resistance, 3(1), 37–60 https://egpress.org/papers/abject-asylum-degradation-and-deliberate-infliction-harm-against-refugees-britain
Canning, V. (2021). Compounding trauma through temporal harm. In M. Bhatia, V. Canning, & S. Khosravi (Eds.), Stealing time (pp. 105–126). Palgrave Macmillan.
Campomori, F., & Ambrosii, M. (2020). Multilevel governance in trouble: The implementation of asylum seekers’ reception in Italy as a battleground. Comparative Migration Studies, 8(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-020-00178-1
Castel, R. (1995). Les pièges de l’exclusion. Lien social et Politiques, 34, 13–21. https://doi.org/10.7202/005065ar
Castles, S. (1995). How nation-states respond to immigration and ethnic diversity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 21(3), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.1995.9976493
Castles, S., Korac, M., Vasta, E., & Vertovec, S. (2002). Integration: Mapping the field. Home Office online report, 29, 115–118.
Czymara, C. S., & Schmidt-Catran, A. W. (2017). Refugees unwelcome? Changes in the public acceptance of immigrants and refugees in Germany in the course of Europe’s ‘immigration crisis’. European Sociological Review, 33(6), 735–751. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcx071
Defrance, J. (2000). La politique de l'apolitisme. Sur l'autonomisation du champ sportif. Politix. Revue des sciences sociales du politique, 13(50), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.3406/polix.2000.1084
Des Nétumières, F. (1997). Méthodes de régression et analyse factorielle. Histoire & Mesure, 12(3,4), 271–297. https://doi.org/10.3406/hism.1997.1547
Di Cecco, S. (2020). En Italie, le sale boulot de l’intégration. Plein droit, 3, 32–35. https://doi.org/10.3917/pld.126.0034
Doidge, M., Keech, M., & Sandri, E. (2020). ‘Active integration’: Sport clubs taking an active role in the integration of refugees. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(2), 305–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2020.1717580
Dowling, F. (2020). A critical discourse analysis of a local enactment of sport for integration policy: Helping young refugees or self-help for voluntary sports clubs? International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(8), 1152–1166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690219874437
Elling, A., De Knop, P., & Knoppers, A. (2001). The social integrative meaning of sport: A critical and comparative analysis of policy and practice in the Netherlands. Sociology of Sport Journal, 18(4), 414–434. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.18.4.414
Emerek, R. (2003). Integration – eller inklusion?: den danske diskussion om integration. Akademiet for Migrationsstudier i Danmark.
Fassin, D. (2001). Quand le corps fait loi. La raison humanitaire dans les procédures de régularisation des étrangers. Sciences sociales et santé, 19(4), 5–34. https://doi.org/10.3406/sosan.2001.1533
Fassin, D. (2010). La Raison humanitaire. Une histoire morale du temps présent: Une histoire morale du temps présent. Hautes Etudes.
Fassin, D. (2012). Les nouvelles frontières de la société française. La Découverte.
Feinstein, S., Poleacovschi, C., Drake, R., & Winters, L. A. (2022). States and refugee integration: A comparative analysis of France, Germany, and Switzerland. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00929-8
Favell, A. (1998). Philosophies of integration: Immigration and the idea of citizenship in France and Britain. Palgrave Macmillan.
Finotelli, C., & Michalowski, I. (2012). The heuristic potential of models of citizenship and immigrant integration reviewed. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 10(3), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2012.693033
Fleischmann, L., & Steinhilper, E. (2017). The myth of apolitical volunteering for refugees: German welcome culture and a new dispositif of helping. Social Inclusion, 5(3), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i3.945
Flensner, K. K., Korp, P., & Lindgren, E. C. (2021). Integration into and through sports? Sport-activities for migrant children and youths. European Journal for Sport and Society, 18(1), 64–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2020.1823689
Fonzo, E. (2019). Intercultural dialogue and integration of migrants through sport. Experiences in Campania region. Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge, 4(1), 31–53.
Funk, N. (2016). A spectre in Germany: Refugees, a ‘welcome culture’ and an ‘integration politics’. Journal of Global Ethics, 12(3), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2016.1252785
Gasparini, W. (2008). L'intégration par le sport. Genèse politique d'une croyance collective. Sociétés contemporaines, 1, 7–23. https://doi.org/10.3917/soco.069.0007
Gattinara, P. C. (2018). Europeans, shut the borders! Anti-refugee mobilisation in Italy and France. In P. D. Della (Ed.), Solidarity mobilizations in the ‘refugee crisis’ (pp. 271–297). Palgrave Macmillan.
Griffiths, M., & Yeo, C. (2021). The UK’s hostile environment: Deputising immigration control. Critical Social Policy, 41(4), 521–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F0261018320980653
Gschwend, A., & Selvaraju, U. (2007). Psycho‐social sport programmes to overcome trauma in post disaster interventions (Swiss Academy for Development Report). Swiss Academy for Development.
Ha, J., & Lyras. (2013). Sport for refugee youth in a new society: The role of acculturation in sport for developing and peace programming. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 35(2), 121–140 https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC144095
Hammar, T. (1985). European immigration policy: A comparative study. Cambridge University Press.
Henry, I., Amara, M., & Aquilina, D. (2007). Multiculturalism, interculturalism, assimilation and sports policy in Europe. In I. Henry (Ed.), Transnational and comparative research in sport (pp. 132–160). Routledge.
Hernes, V. (2018). Cross-national convergence in times of crisis? Integration policies before, during and after the refugee crisis. West European Politics, 41(6), 1305–1329. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2018.1429748
Husson, F., Lê, S., & Pagès, J. (2016). Analyse de données avec R. Presses universitaires de Rennes.
Joppke, C. (2007). Beyond national models: Civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe. West European Politics, 30(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380601019613
Joppke, C. (2017). Civic integration in Western Europe: Three debates. West European Politics, 40(6), 1153–1176. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1303252
Koopmans, R. (2005). Contested citizenship: Immigration and cultural diversity in Europe (Vol. 25). University of Minnesota Press.
Koopmans, B., & Doidge, M. (2022). They play together, they laugh together: Sport, play and fun in refugee sport projects. Sport in Society, 25(3), 537–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2017816
Koopmans, R., & Statham, P. (1999). Challenging the liberal nation-state? Postnationalism, multiculturalism, and the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in Britain and Germany. American Journal of Sociology, 105(3), 652–696.
Lawrence, S., De Silva, M., & Henley, R. (2010). Sports and games for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007171.pub2
Lebart, L., Morineau, A., & Piron, M. (1995). Statistique exploratoire multidimensionnelle. Dunod.
Le Roux, B., & Rouanet, H. (2010). Multiple correspondence analysis. Thousand Oaks.
Lowndes, V., & Polat, R. K. (2021). How do local actors interpret, enact and contest policy? An analysis of local government responses to meeting the needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Local Government Studies, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2020.1825386
Mayblin, L. (2017). Asylum after empire: Colonial legacies in the politics of asylum seeking. Rowman & Littlefield.
Mayblin, L., & James, P. (2019). Asylum and refugee support in the UK: Civil society filling the gaps? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(3), 375–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1466695
McDonald, B., Spaaij, R., & Dukic, D. (2019). Moments of social inclusion: Asylum seekers, football and solidarity. Sport in society, 22(6), 935–949. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1504774
Karakayali, S., & Kleist, J. O. (2016). Volunteers and asylum seekers. Forced Migration Review, 51, 65–67.
Karolewski, I. P., & Benedikter, R. (2018). Europe’s refugee and migrant crisis. Politique europeenne, 60(2), 98–132. https://doi.org/10.3917/poeu.060.0098
Keküllüoğlu, F., Yıldırım, D., Couteau, A., Lorcerie, F., & Tucci, I. (2016). L’accueil des réfugiés en Allemagne: la construction d’une identité collective entre solidarité et démarcation. Migrations Societe, 166(4), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.3917/migra.166.0037
Koebel, M., & Stahl, S. (2013). Die Entwicklung der Sportsozialarbeit in Frankreich und Deutschland: Zwischen lokaler Integration und nationaler Identität. Revue d'Allemagne et des Pays de langue allemande, 44(4), 501–522.
Krossa, A. S., & Naglo, K. (2019). Integration durch Fußball!? Integrationsideale und-realitäten in einem Sportangebot für geflüchtete Kinder. FuG–Zeitschrift für Fußball und Gesellschaft, 1(1), 11–12. https://doi.org/10.3224/fug.v1i1.05
Kymlicka, W. (2016). Defending diversity in an era of populism: Multiculturalism and interculturalism compared. In N. Meer, T. Modood, & R. Zapata-Barrero (Eds.), Multiculturalism and interculturalism. Debating the dividing lines (pp. 158–177). Edinburgh University Press.
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2529310
Meier, H. E., & Leinwather, M. (2013). Finally a ‘taste for diversity’? National identity, consumer discrimination, and the multi-ethnic German national football team. European Sociological Review, 29(6), 1201–1213. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jct011
Michelini, E., Burrmann, U., Nobis, T., Tuchel, J., & Schlesinger, T. (2018). Sport offers for refugees in Germany. Promoting and hindering conditions in voluntary sport clubs. Society Register, 2(1), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2018.2.1.02
Michelini, E. (2020). Refugees, physical activity and sport: A systematic literature review. Mondi Migranti, 3(2020), 131–152. https://doi.org/10.3280/MM2020-003008
McGee, D., & Pelham, J. (2018). Politics at play: Locating human rights, refugees and grassroots humanitarianism in the Calais Jungle. Leisure Studies, 37(1), 22–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2017.1406979
Modebadze, V. (2019). The refugee crisis, Brexit and the rise of populism: Major obstacles to the European integration process. Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, 5(1), 86–95 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-63152-8
Nobis, T., Gomez-Gonzalez, C., Nesseler, C., & Dietl, H. (2021). (Not) being granted the right to belong—Amateur football clubs in Germany. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 57(7), 1157–1174. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902211061303
Nowy, T., Feiler, S., & Breuer, C. (2020). Investigating grassroots sports’ engagement for refugees: Evidence from voluntary sports clubs in Germany. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 44(1), 22–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F0193723519875889
Nunn, C., Spaaij, R., & Luguetti, C. (2022). Beyond integration: Football as a mobile, transnational sphere of belonging for refugee-background young people. Leisure Studies, 41(1), 42–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2021.1962393
Pink, M. A., Mahoney, J. W., & Saunders, J. E. (2020). Promoting positive development among youth from refugee and migrant backgrounds: The case of Kicking Goals Together. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 51, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101790
Pratiwi, A., Linnossuo, O., & Marjanen, H. (2020). Comparative social work practices with young refugee and asylum seeker: The European experiences. European Journal of Social Work, 23(3), 514–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2020.1719475
Réa, A., Martiniello, M., Mazzola, A., & Meuleman, B. (2019). The refugee reception crisis: Polarized opinions and mobilizations. Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles.
Sabatier, F. (2011). Combats pour l’émancipation. Une histoire des organisations sportives “communistes” de France (1923-2010). Hommes & migrations, 1289, 28–36. https://doi.org/10.4000/hommesmigrations.792
Schnapper, D. (2002). La démocratie providentielle: essai sur l'égalité contemporaine. Gallimard.
Scholten, P. (2016). Between national models and multi-level decoupling: The pursuit of multi-level governance in Dutch and UK policies towards migrant incorporation. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 17(4), 973–994. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-015-0438-9
Skinner, J., Zakus, D. H., & Cowell, J. (2008). Development through sport: Building social capital in disadvantaged communities. Sport management review, 11(3), 253–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1441-3523(08)70112-8
Spaaij, R., Broerse, J., Oxford, S., Luguetti, C., McLachlan, F., McDonald, B., & Pankowiak, A. (2019). Sport, refugees, and forced migration: A critical review of the literature. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 1, 47. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2019.00047
Spencer, S. (2020). Cities breaking the mould? Municipal inclusion of irregular migrants in Europe. In S. Spencer & A. Triandafyllidou (Eds.), Migrants with irregular status in Europe (pp. 187–205). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34324-8_10
Spracklen, K., Long, J., & Hylton, K. (2015). Leisure opportunities and new migrant communities: Challenging the contribution of sport. Leisure Studies, 34(1), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2014.939989
Stoltz, D. S., & Taylor, M. A. (2017). Paying with change: The purposeful enunciation of material culture. Poetics, 64, 26–39.
Stone, C. (2018). Utopian community football? Sport, hope and belongingness in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. Leisure Studies, 37(2), 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2017.1329336
Stura, C. (2019). “What makes us strong”–The role of sports clubs in facilitating integration of refugees. European Journal for Sport and Society, 16(2), 128–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2019.1625584
Tuchel, J., Burrmann, U., Nobis, T., Michelini, E., & Schlesinger, T. (2021). Practices of German voluntary sports clubs to include refugees. Sport in Society, 24(4), 670–692. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1706491
Vandermeerschen, H., Meganck, J., Seghers, J., Vos, S., & Scheerder, J. (2017). Sports, poverty and the role of the voluntary sector. Exploring and explaining nonprofit sports clubs’ efforts to facilitate participation of socially disadvantaged people. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 28(1), 307–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9799-8
Véniat, C. (2021). S’engager face aux politiques de non-accueil des migrants. Mobilisations des acteurs et catégorisations en expérience. SociologieS, Introduction du Dossier. https://doi.org/10.4000/sociologies.17533
Vietti, F. (2016). Promoting the human rights of forcibly displaced people and migrants through sport. Studi Emigrazione, 203, 475–490.
Watzke, W. (2018). Persönliche Werte als gelebte Werte im Sport–ein Praxisbeitrag. In A. Schneider, J. Köhler, & F. Schumann (Eds.), Fairplay Im Sport: Beiträge Zur Wertedebatte Und den Ethischen Potenzialen (pp. 41–48). Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-21342-8_3
Webster, C., & Abunaama, K. (2021). Informal football spaces and the negotiation of temporal politics in the lives of forced migrants. In N. D. M. In Ugolotti & J. Caudwell (Eds.), Leisure and forced migration: Lives lived in asylum systems (pp. 21–34). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341045
Wihtol de Wenden, C. (2018). Crise des migrations ou crise des politiques d’asile et ses effets sur les territoires d’accueil. Hommes Migrations, 4, 23–29. https://doi.org/10.4000/hommesmigrations.7166
Woodhouse, D., & Conricode, D. (2017). In-ger-land, In-ger-land, In-ger-land! Exploring the impact of soccer on the sense of belonging of those seeking asylum in the UK. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 52(8), 940–954. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F1012690216637630
Acknowledgements
We thank Geneviève Cabagno, Eléa Chiron, Claire Crublet, Anthony Forestier, Noémi Garcia, Stéphane Héas, Lisa Moyon, and Yohann Rech, from the VIPS2 laboratory of the University of Rennes 2 for helpful comments and suggestions.
Declarations
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
ESM 1:
(XLSX 17 kb)
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Puech, J., Le Yondre, F. & Freedman, J. Typology of European Sports Programmes for Welcoming Migrants: Contrasting Political Philosophies. Int. Migration & Integration 24, 1381–1411 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01014-y
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01014-y