Community-Driven Sports Events as a Vehicle for Cultural Sustainability within the Context of Forced Migration: Lessons from the Amsterdam Futsal Tournament

Ramón Spaaij,Hebe Schaillée

doi:10.3390/su12031020

Ramón Spaaij, Hebe Schaillée

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031020

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Abstract

Participation in sport can act as a means or context for enhancing the social inclusion of migrants and refugees. Research has examined if and how mainstream sport organizations’ practices of engaging newly arrived migrants and refugees are effective in supporting participation in sustainable and culturally appropriate ways. Little is known, however, about the impact of community-driven sports events on sustainable participation by migrants and refugees. This paper examines this question with an analytical focus on community sustainability and the role of culture in sport event sustainability practices. The authors draw on ethnographic fieldwork with the Amsterdam Futsal Tournament (AFT), a sports event organized by Somali diaspora community members, to consider how event organizers and participants seek to promote cultural sustainability in a diaspora sport context. The fieldwork comprised 49 semi-structured interviews, participant observation before, during and after the event, and digital ethnography of event-related social media. The findings show the importance of cultural sustainability as a driver of community-driven sport sustainability practices, but also indicate how this driver is closely linked to addressing organizational and individual sustainability. The analysis demonstrates how the AFT can serve as a catalyst for the expansion of sport and community events among Somali diaspora communities.

Highlights

Enhancing the social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers through sport and physical activity features as a policy and program objective in a number of countries of resettlement [1,2]
The research methods discussed in the previous section yielded insights into the cultural and community sustainability practices surrounding the Amsterdam Futsal Tournament
We have drawn on ethnographic fieldwork with a grassroots sports event organized by Somali diaspora community members to consider how event organizers and participants seek to sustain and promote cultural sustainability in a diaspora sport context

Summary

Introduction

Enhancing the social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers through sport and physical activity features as a policy and program objective in a number of countries of resettlement [1,2]. Scientific and grey literature indicates that the experiences and outcomes of forced migrants’ attempts to negotiate a sense of inclusion and belonging in sports contexts have been mixed [2,4] It identifies several structural and cultural barriers to participation in sport and physical activity for migrants and refugees including unfamiliar/negative sport environments, lack of knowledge about participation opportunities, cost, transport, language and lack of cultural or family support for girls and women’s participation. This conclusion is relevant because sports providers continue to attempt to integrate or transition people with refugee backgrounds into existing mainstream sport structures that may not meet their needs or provide welcoming or inclusive environments This is further evidenced by Northcote and Casimiro’s study of a sports program for refugee-background Muslim youth, which found a disconnect between policy discourse, which prioritized participation in mainstream sport (i.e., sports clubs), and the young people’s needs and aspirations, which prioritized ad hoc sports events and self-organized sport participation [7]. Spaaij concludes that refugee-background youth are likely to be confronted with particular exclusionary discourses and practices within mainstream sports clubs that impede their ability to establish a sense of belonging and inclusion [8]

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