Rahela Jurković and Ramón Spaaij
International Conference on Sport as a Medium for Social Inclusion and Participation
University of Zagreb
Croatia
Abstract
Based on the research results published in our paper “The ‘integrative potential’ and socio-political constraints of football in Southeast Europe: A critical exploration of lived experiences of people seeking asylum“, this presentation will propose suggestions to improve refugee inclusion in society through sport (and football in particular). The study critically interrogated the “integrative potential” of football by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that included 84 semistructured interviews with refugees, asylum seekers and local community organizations, and five interviews with representatives of national football associations across Southeast Europe, a region that has hitherto been underexamined in this field of research. The results of the research show the uneasy and strained relationship between football and integration, characterized by incongruity between micro-level practices and experiences of solidarity and inclusion, and State-sponsored marginality and deterrence taking place in Southeast Europe. The presentation at the Zagreb Conference will build on these findings to offer recommendations towards filling the gaps in refugee integration through football, with a view to achieve more viable social cohesion in Southeast Europe, and other societies that face similar difficulties as the region.
Ramón Spaaij 