Pacific Island rugby: Histories, mobilities, comparisons

Abstract

The migration of rugby players from Fiji and neighbouring Pacific Island nations poses fundamental questions about the way in which sport is embedded in historical, political, social and global dynamics, all of which give specific meanings to sports and those who play it. An approach that bestows a central role on comparison focuses equally on how sport can include and exclude, as well as create and maintain structures of inequality with implications far beyond the confines of sport. When geographical mobility through professional sport is a major means of attaining social mobility, as is the case in Fiji, we must compare these dynamics with other avenues for social mobility – for indigenous Fijians, recruitment in the Fijian or British military – which share many features with recruitment in overseas rugby markets. Colonial and ethnic stereotypes continue to hold sway in the sport industries, with both positive and negative consequences, but their persistence is the result of both global and local dynami...