Representation of sporting migrants: primary versus secondary

Abstract

The use of foreigners in Czech basketball is examined as per its response to globalization using an analysis of print media. Basketball is a secondary sport in Czech culture and thus the globalization responses are less contested than might be expected based on previous sport migration studies in primary sports, and previous research showing Czech homogeny. The study parallels methodology initially outlined by Alan Klein, using a review of print media to study sport globalization; the results from a secondary sport are compared with those observed by Klein in a primary sport. The response to the phenomena of sport migration in the secondary sport of basketball in the semi-periphery country of the Czech Republic is shown to be one of commodification or passive cultural acceptance. This finding differs from the broader observations of rejection of foreigners in Czech identified by others, but is explained by the secondary position of basketball freeing it from ties to nationalism, collective identity and protected space in Czech culture. The cultural response found in Czech basketball also differs to that found in Dominican baseball by Klein, but the patterns of print media coverage demonstrate a high degree of similarity.