“We Can’t Get Stuck in Old Ways”: Swedish Sports Club’s Integration Efforts With Children and Youth in Migration

Abstract

The last years many people have been forcibly displaced due to circumstances such as conflicts in the world, and many people have come to Sweden for shelter. It has been challenging for Swedish society to receive and guide newcomers through the resettlement process, and many organizations in civil society, such as sports clubs, have been invited to support the resettlement. However, a limited numbers of studies has drawn the attention to sports clubs experiences. Therefore the aim of the paper was enhance understanding of sports clubs’ prerequesites and experiences of integration efforts with immigrant children and youth. Ten Swedish clubs with experience of working with newcomers participated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Two categories were identified: Struggling with sporting values and organization and Seeing integration in everyday activities. The clubs experienced that integration occurs in everyday activities, but current ideas focusing competition and rigid organization of sports constrained possibilities for integrating newcomers with no or limited former experience of club sports. The clubs experienced potential to contribute to personal development, social connectedness and enjoyment in a new society and building bridges between cultures. In conclusion, clubs cannot solve the challenges of resettlement in society but have potential to be part of larger societal networks of integration.

Young refugees’ experiences of accumulating horizontal and vertical social capital through organised and informal sports

“…However, while sport is often constructed as an essentially good, unifying, pure, and wholesome institution, Dowling (2019: 2) argues that policymakers' 'ill-defined policies of sport for integration are difficult to realise and, paradoxically, can lead to a sense of alterity and exclusion'. This is in line with findings from other studies showing how integration is downgraded in favour of competitive sports in Norway (Friberg and Gautun, 2007;Nesse and Hovden, 2023) and the Nordic countries (Bjerregaard et al, 2009;Flensner et al, 2021;Hertting and Karlefors, 2021). Furthermore, whilst Norwegian-based studies show that sports participation is the most popular activity among young refugees (Seland and Lidén, 2011) and is essential in creating safe spaces from the challenges of young refugees' everyday lives (Nesse, 2023), Dowling (2019) argues that young refugees are subjected to assimilation and othering within voluntary sports clubs.…”

Sport4Me: A people focused approach to engaging Australians in sport

“…One of the defining features of sport and elite sport in particular, is the desire to "win", and this often leads to bias towards finding the highest skilled players (11), and to increasing competitiveness (12). In terms of inclusion of all of those who want to participate, the problem is often that (club) sport organisations continue to focus on delivering competition formats and striving to be on top of the competition ladder, and an emphasis on winning (11). However, for many individuals, winning is not a major motivation to play sport, and competition-focused clubs may actually contribute to the decline in participation (11).…”

“…In terms of inclusion of all of those who want to participate, the problem is often that (club) sport organisations continue to focus on delivering competition formats and striving to be on top of the competition ladder, and an emphasis on winning (11). However, for many individuals, winning is not a major motivation to play sport, and competition-focused clubs may actually contribute to the decline in participation (11).…”

“…In the last decade sport organisations in Australia, mainly driven by government incentives and start-up professional sport competitions for females, have started to open up clubs and competitions for females (15,16). However, most sport clubs in regard to their leadership and structures continue to focus on organising competitions which inhibits the inclusion of new participants and especially those with limited experience playing sport (11). This unfortunately is not a new phenomenon.…”

Bollen i rörelse: Tjejfotboll, fostran och normkritik i den urbana periferin

“…Trots det så upplever företrädare för idrottsföreningar sig ofta bidra till integration, till exempel genom att skapa relationer och nya kontakter med andra unga. På så vis ser företrädare för idrottens organisationer integrationsarbete som invävt i föreningsidrottens vardagliga praktiker (Hertting & Karlefors 2021).…”