Migrant Athletes Research Articles

Learning in landscapes of professional sports: transnational perspectives on talent development and migration into Danish women’s handball around the time of the financial crisis, 2004–2012

This article contributes to breaking down the methodological nationalism in sport through which talent development is perceived and organized within a nation’s borders. It develops an alternative transnational perspective on learning conditions in professional sport by using Etienne Wenger’s concept landscape of practice. Wenger draws attention to the options for learning across communities and to the learning assets of boundary encounters. This approach will be deployed in a case study of the fluctuations in sport labour migration into Danish women’s handball around the time of the financial crisis. Media reports and interviews with handball coaches suggest perceptions that changed from considering migrant athletes as barriers to domestic talent to migrant athletes becoming useful for enhancing local and national talent development. The article ends with a discussion about the options for and challenges in breaking down the methodological nationalism in sport governance.

Translation, Globalization and the Elite Migrant Athlete

In professional sports, processes of globalization have triggered an upsurge in mobile elite migrant athletes who acquire status and power through their talent and increasing wealth. In elite football competitions in particular, this has led to a newly constructed power dynamic between host country institutions and elite athletes that is observable in translation and interpreting events. The linguistic diversity created by the presence of elite migrant athletes in national football leagues has created a need for translation and interpreting in sporting contexts, a need further defined by the extent to which these athletes have acculturated to the culture and language of the host environment, or are dependent on translation and interpreting to communicate in their professional environment. The events examined in this paper demonstrate how newly constructed power relationships between elite migrants and host institutions are realized in translated and interpreted communication. Through two case studies of Latin American footballers in the English Premier League, the article analyzes the attempted resolution of misunderstandings of communication arising in the course of play and involving translation and interpreting. Negotiations over intended meaning are lent a particular complexity by the power-through-wealth of these particular athletes, challenging the binary positionings of established-insider/migrant-outsider and acculturated/assimilated migrants.

Team cohesion and ethnic–cultural identity in adolescent migrant athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sport participation in the social integration of adolescents with non-dominant ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In particular, this study investigated the relationship between team cohesion and ethnic–cultural identity. Participants were 83 young migrant athletes (mean age 15.60 years). Participants completed the Ethnic/Cultural Identity Salience Questionnaire and the Youth Sport Environment Questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that cohesion negatively predicted feelings of fringe and lack of interaction. Our findings suggest that sport participation, particularly in cohesive teams, can facilitate the development of adaptive identity toward the goal of social integration in migrant adolescents.

Performing the postcolonial: the 'migrant' body as a site of veneration, repugnance and blame

Historically, football in France has reflected broader processes of transmigration with sporting success and failure reified in terms of the ‘migrant’ body in its various forms (e.g., with regard to ‘race’, gender, ethnicity and religion). This process of reification applies particularly to major sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup, where icons and scandals provide opportunities to explore the corporeal discourses through which the body is represented, experienced and performed. In this paper, I employ a series of media scandals involving ethnic players from the French national team to examine how emotions influence attitudes towards migration in contemporary France. As a transgression of society’s moral order, the media scandal is used as a paradigm to interrogate the social consequences of representing the migrant body as the source of moral outrage. With ‘race’ relations at the forefront of French football, and the country’s political terrain more generally, I argue that the athletic performance of ethnic players has a profound effect on whether the migrant becomes an object of disgust or veneration. Beyond the triviality typically associated with celebrity misdemeanours, I contend that media scandals involving migrant athletes warrant serious scholarly attention, revealing the intersections between sport, power, and social justice.

Distance running in Kenya: athletics labour migration and its consequences

Kenya has established herself as a source of international distance running talent. However, due to the economic inequality and other factors, global migration of athletes is on the increase. One notable example is that of athletes born in Kenya, who have moved abroad to represent other countries. Initially, the trend was to move to the USA, Europe or Japan, but of late the Middle East countries of Qatar and Bahrain have become popular destinations. The purpose of this article is to delve into the Kenyan distance running phenomenon, the migration of athletes and the consequences on some selected athletes using sport labour migration and the typologies of migrant athletes developed by Maguire (1999, Global sport: Individuals, societies, civilizations. Cambridge: Polity Press) and Magee and Sugden (2002, The world at their feet: Professional football and international labor migration. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 26(4), 421–437) as the conceptual framework. This movement of athletic talent also poses major social and political challenges to the migrant athletes. Some of the athletes who moved to the Middle East from Kenya have had negative experiences forcing them to re-claim their Kenyan citizenship. This issue of athlete labour migration and related consequences, therefore, deserves some scholarly attention.

Moorings and Movements: The Paradox of Sporting Mobilities

This paper advocates for sport to be a feature of mobilities research. Although hitherto ignored by proponents of the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ (Sheller & Urry, 2006), we contend the sporting realm is a rich site of analysis into the rapidly shifting conditions of movement, communication, identification and governance. Following Clifford (1997), we suggest that scholars consider how sporting movements are differentially constrained, and how those on the move can be variously positioned by, and indeed have the potential to [re-]position, political, economic and cultural formations. Along these lines, we argue that in the context of neoliberal globalisation, the sporting body offers an important paradox of mobility: whereby freedom of movement for moving/sporting bodies across global culture- and capital-scapes (as migrant athlete labourers, as tourists, as global celebrities or sporting brands) simultaneously produces immobility, as individuals are increasingly constrained by the logics of the market (as hyper-regimented athletes, as sweatshop labourers in Nike factories, etc.). In so doing, we point to various research themes that that can both inform contemporary understandings of sport, but also enrich broader mobilities scholarship.

Cross-Cultural Adjustments and International Collegiate Athletes

Ridinger and Pastore (2000a) proposed a theoretical model to measure international student-athlete adjustment to college consisting of: (a) adjustment factors, (b) antecedent dimensions to those factors, and (c) outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the antecedent factors listed by Ridinger and Pastore were indeed the best indicators of successful adjustment to college for international migrant athletes and to determine if other antecedent factors were also relevant to adjustment. Multiple qualitative interviews with 13 international athletes from four NCAA Division I institutions were conducted. Data collected through those interviews supported all of the antecedent dimensions of the Ridinger and Pastore (2000a) model with the exception of the perception dimension subheading of faculty/staff. New dimension subheadings (a) sense of adventure, (b) previous international travel experience, and (c) family infuence emerged from the data and were added to a revised model of international athlete adjustment.

Globetrotters and Local Heroes? Labor Migration, Basketball, and Local Identities

This article addresses the global migration of sports labor. The contested presence of North American players in English basketball, first documented by Maguire (1988), is considered in the context of questions regarding the reception of migrants in local cultures. A 2-year ethnographic project incorporating participant observations, interviews, and focus groups investigated fans’ consumption of local basketball. Complex and nuanced interpretations of migrant players were evident. These were informed by local identities and civic pride, cultural stereotypes, and local experiences of spectating. Thus, the presence of migrant athletes is viewed specifically through the local lens—responses were shaped by the varying roles and interpretations of consuming basketball in the lives of local residents. Such observations reinforce the need for empirically grounded case studies to explore local consumption in light of the wider political–economic patterning of global sport.

Cricket's Global 'Finishing School': The Migration of Overseas Cricketers into English County Cricket

This paper introduces the controversial topic of the international movement of sport labour and explains its significance for the understanding of modern sport develop ment. Specific emphasis is placed on the impact of sport labour migration on the maintenance and development of sporting talent pipelines in both host and donor countries. The motives and objectives of the migrant athletes themselves provide a central focus. Reference is made to the historical development of cricket migration, the cases for and against and the steps taken to facilitate or restrict such movement. Player directory based quantitative analysis reveals the size and complexity of the practice, and interviews with migrant players offer insights into the athlete's experience.