Shooting for Lithuania: Migration, National Identity and Men’s Basketball in the East of England

Abstract

The accession of the ‘A8 states’ into the European Union initiated considerable migration into Western Europe. The impact upon local communities has seen significant attention, yet little research exists that focuses upon migrant experiences and identity specifically in sport. This study used a figurational framework to investigate the lived experiences of basketball among male Lithuanian migrants in the rural east of England. Semistructured interviews highlighted participants’ motivations to migrate, their acculturation experiences and the role that basketball played during their sojourn. Participants considered basketball a significant means for the expression of national identity and as a focus for their resistance to local racializing processes. Conversely, conflict with established local basketball communities and perceptions of marginalization among migrants were common, creating divisions in local basketball competitions.

Migration for Work: Brazilian Futsal Players’ Labor Conditions and Disposition for Mobility

“…The interviewees have played, in average, a period of 1.8 years in the same club (Table 1). These data are both lower than suggested by P21, related to the period of top level players' permanence in the same club as until 3 years long, as well as those described by Roderick (2013) on elite football players in England, Frick (2007Frick ( , 2009 on elite German football (related to the average of contract duration), and Maguire (2013) on cricket players in both Northern and Southern hemispheres.…”

“…This scenario of instability lived by Brazilian men elite futsal players, that is numerically worse than other contexts on the literature (Frick, 2007(Frick, , 2009Maguire, 2013;Roderick, 2013), seems to be tougher for sub-elite players (considered, in this study, are those who have never played for the Brazilian senior national team), in other words, the majority on LNF. Data from LNF 2013 and LNF 2016 2 show that the "permanence index" in the same club seems to be shorter than 3 years for most of the players.…”

“…In the case of Brazilian futsal, better salaries and a larger confidence on the compliance on employment contracts seem to be attractive factors to work abroad. This belief happens especially in relation to Europe, where sport field seems to be better structured in relation to formal job contracts and migrants hosting, as in the case of football, where the Bosman law contributes to offer legal support to athletes (Binder & Findlay, 2012;Frick, 2007Frick, , 2009Poli, 2010). Although the frequent mobility between clubs also happens in other countries, as in Italy (Tedesco, 2014), interviewees affirm that in some nations, as Spain, Russia and Portugal, in general, clubs have stronger economic situation and offer better job conditions in comparison to Brazil In Spain, the employment contract is more respected than in Brazil.…”

Actual and ideal sources of coaching knowledge of elite Chinese coaches

“…Globalization and advances in technology not only facilitate the flow of coaching knowledge 7 but also the circulation of players 30,31 and coaches. 32–34 China is a good example, as noted by Fan et al. : 35 “In the 2000s, the number of foreign coaches who serve in national and provincial teams grew rapidly” (p.2396), and by Dong and Mangan 36 : “by the end of 2000, about 60 foreign [soccer] coaches coached the Chinese … This extensive use of foreign coaches threatened the job security of domestic coaches” (p.92).…”

Being “The Damned Foreigner”: <i>Affective National Sentiments and Racialization of Lithuanians in Iceland</i>

“…In some communities and contexts in the UK, scholars have observed racialization of Lithuanians. Evans and Piggott's (2016) research on basketball in East of England observes, for example, the racialization of Lithuanian basketball players from UK basketball players. Similar point is made by Fox et al (2012) when observing racialization of Eastern Europeans in the UK, as they stress how media discussions and policies can work at 'whitening ' and 'darkening' certain populations (p. 692).…”