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

• 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.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Idrottsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Sport and Fitness Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Integration

inclusion

segregation

sports club

youth

social inclusion

experiences

policy

football

people

Social Sciences - Other Topics

Barn- och ungdomsvetenskap

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