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Key Publications in Sport and Migration
Maguire, J., Liston, K. & Falcous, M. (eds.) (2024): Handbook on Sport and Migration. Edward Elgar.
This insightful Handbook explores how sport intersects the experiences of asylum seekers, refugees, workers and migrants. Editors Joseph Maguire, Katie Liston and Mark Falcous bring together esteemed experts who draw on globally diverse cases studies to capture the complexities surrounding sport and migration, revealing how it is embedded in the wider power struggles that characterize global sport.
Analysing a range of case studies across the globe, chapter authors examine the control exercised by various stakeholders, both sporting and non-sporting, and how their actions contour migration experiences. They cover matters such as globalization, national identity, and intercultural communication, as well as in-depth issues including talent pipelines, bridgeheads, and the stereotyping of athletes from different class, ethnic and gender groups. The dynamics of sports migration are highlighted when revealing the tensions concerning the promotion of commercial spectacle versus the advocacy of national and local identities, and the search for short term viability versus longer term development.
‘A timely and provocative resource that builds upon decades of work in migration, geography, sociology, and sports studies. This book brings together a global team of scholars who provide keen insight into the dynamics of labor, mobility, migration, economy, and power in the sporting worlds of the 21st century.’
Christopher Gaffney, New York University
de Oliveira Filho, J.H. (2024): Sport Migrants, Precarity and Identity. Brazilian Footballers in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge.
This book takes a close look at the experiences of migrant athletes, their precarious careers, and at what this can tell us about wider themes of globalisation, identity, race, gender, and the body.
Based on in-depth ethnographic research on male Brazilian footballers and futsal players working in Central and Eastern Europe, this book helps to fill gaps in previous research on sports migration and global sports labor markets. This book uses life-history interviews to reveal how race, gender, and class are articulated in the everyday experiences of migrant athletes; how they express their religious affiliations; and how they navigate the relationships with injuries and pain that are characteristic of precarious athletic careers. This book considers the transnational networks that are essential in sustaining international athletic labor flows and the role that borders and emotions play in the lives of sports migrants and also the agency that migrant athletes can have in issues such as player development and retention.
Presenting a more nuanced, ground-level perspective on sports migration and the sociological dialogue between identity, culture, and the body, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the socio-cultural study of sport, migration, globalization, or global inequalities.
Agergaard, S., Darby, P., Falcous, M. & Klein, A. (eds.) (2023): Special Issue: Sport and Migration in the Age of Superdiversity. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 58 (4).
Considering the contemporary diversification of migration, this SI examines the dynamic interaction of diversity variables in sport and migration. Centring the multiple axes of differentiation that impact sports and migration, it illustrates the value of postcolonial theory and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks.
Table of Contents:
Agergaard, S., Darby, P., Falcous, M. & Klein, A.: Sport and migration in the age of superdiversity; Spaaij, R., Luguetti, C., McDonald, B. & McLachlan, F.: Enhancing social inclusion in sport: Dynamics of action research in super-diverse contexts; van Campenhout, G., van Lienden, A. & van Sterkenburg, J.: Meanings given to (super-)diversity in the Dutch national team by Dutch football commentators: A historical approach; Choi, Y.: The Olympics, nationalism, and multiculturalism: News coverage of naturalized players in the Korean men’s national ice hockey team; Michael Cottingham, M., Richard, H., Hu, T., Biskynis, S., Sunku, R., Walters, G., Okanlami, O.: Adapting to sport and country: Immigrant athletes with disabilities; Barrick, S.: It’s Just About Having Fun’? Interrogating the lived experiences of newcomers To Canada in introductory winter sport programmes; Pringle, R. & Liu, L.: Mainland Chinese first-generation immigrants and New Zealanders’ views on sport participation, race/ethnicity and the body: Does sport participation enhance cultural understandings?
Spaaij, R., Luguetti, C. & de Martini Ugolotti, N. (eds.) (2023): Forced Migration and Sport. Critical Dialogues across International Contexts and Disciplinary Boundaries. Routledge.
This book aims to extend and deepen conversations among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners about the role of sport in relation to contexts and issues of forced migration.
The chapters in this volume critically analyse and interrogate the implications of existing approaches, practices, and research around sport and forced migration across five themes: 1) participatory methodologies, power, voice and ethics; 2) emotions and embodiment; 3) gendered, socio-ecological and intersectional perspectives; 4) critical perspectives on integration and intercultural communication; and 5) fandom and media representations of forced migrants in elite sport. It does so by engaging with complex, yet necessary, dialogues and perspectives that cross disciplinary boundaries, and by not shying away from conceptual and ethical tensions that interrogate concepts, methodologies, policies, and forms of representation regarding forced migrants’ experiences and contributions to global sporting cultures.
The book provides key contributions to advance critical scholarly analyses and inform applied interventions on the ground and will be beneficial to researchers and advanced students of Sports, Sociology and Politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
Darby, P., Esson, J. & Ungruhe, C. (2022): African Football Migration. Aspirations, Experiences and Trajectories. Manchester University Press.
The global success of football icons like Samuel Eto'o and Mohamed Salah has fuelled the migratory projects of countless young men across the African continent who dream of following in their footsteps. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic research, the book chronicles the experiences and trajectories of those pursuing this highly prized form of transnational migration. This book uncovers and traces the myriad actors, networks and institutions that affect the ability of young people across the continent to realise social mobility through football's global production network. While it sheds critical light on the barriers to social mobility erected by neoliberal capitalism, and how these are negotiated, it also generates original interdisciplinary (sociological, geographical and anthropological) perspectives on the complex interplay between structural forces and human agency, as young players navigate an industry rife with commercial speculation.
Shortlisted for the British Society of Sports History's Lord Aberdare Literary Prize 2023
Honourable Mention - North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Outstanding Book Award 2023
Book Discussions: SportsAfrica and New Books Network
'Well-researched and meticulously written [...] Provides some much-needed oxygen to the study of African migration.'
Jesper Bjarnesen, International Migration Review
Besnier, N., Calabrò, D.G. & Guinness, D. (eds.) (2020): Sport, Migration and Gender in the Neoliberal Age. Routledge.
This ethnographic collection explores how neoliberalism has permeated the bodies, subjectivities, and gender of youth around the world as global sport industries have expanded their reach into marginal areas, luring young athletes with the dream of pursuing athletic careers in professional leagues of the Global North.
Neoliberalism has reconfigured sport since the 1980s, as sport clubs and federations have become for-profit businesses, in conjunction with television and corporate sponsors. Neoliberal sport has had other important effects, which are rarely the object of attention: as the national economies of the Global South and local economies of marginal areas of the Global North have collapsed under pressure from global capital, many young people dream of pursuing a sport career as an escape from poverty. But this elusive future is often located elsewhere, initially in regional centres, though ultimately in the wealthy centres of the Global North that can support a sport infrastructure. The pursuit of this future has transformed kinship relations, gender relations, and the subjectivities of people. This collection of rich ethnographies from diverse regions of the world, from Ghana to Finland and from China to Fiji, pulls the reader into the lives of men and women in the global sport industries, including aspiring athletes, their families, and the agents, coaches, and academy directors shaping athletes’ dreams. It demonstrates that the ideals of neoliberalism spread in surprising ways, intermingling with categories like gender, religion, indigeneity, and kinship. Athletes’ migrations provide a novel angle on the global workings of neoliberalism.
Acheampong, E.Y., Bouhaouala, M. & Raspaud, M. (2019): African Footballers in Europe. Migration, Community, and Give Back Behaviours. Routledge.
African Footballers in Europe traces the social and economic evolution of African football and examines the strategies and resources that players mobilise in their migrations, with a particular focus on ‘Give Back Behaviours’ (how players contribute to their countries or communities of origin). It shines new light on contemporary migrations, labour markets in sport, and processes of development in Africa.
Using a multidisciplinary approach and Weberian methodology to analyse players’ 'Give Back' behaviour, the book highlights the complex rationale behind this behaviour, based on a combination of social, cultural, and economic elements. It features interviews with former and current African professional players, providing a vivid picture of the role of communities in players’ migration projects, the allure of the European football market, and investment initiatives that can contribute to local and regional development.
This is a vital read for academics, researchers, and students of sport sciences, sociology of sport, sport management, sociology, geography, political sciences, management, sociology of Africa, migration studies, sociology of the labour market, and economic sociology. It is also an important resource for professional organisations, NGOs, football agents, football administrators, federations, confederations, and governments.
Agergaard, S. (2018): Rethinking Sports and Integration. Developing a Transnational Perspective on Migrants and Descendants in Sports. Routledge.
Rethinking Sports and Integration offers a critical cultural analysis of the idea that sport can promote the integration of migrants and their descendants. It examines the origins of this idea and the concept of integration, and analyzes the problems in focus, the methods applied and the results of sports-related integration programmes.
The text also redefines sports-related integration with perspectives from migration studies that highlight the super-diversity within migrant groups, and explore the various ways in which transnational connections influence participation in sport within migrant communities.
This book is important reading for students and researchers working in sport development, sport policy or migration studies, as well as a valuable resource for sports governing bodies, policymakers and project workers.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Defining sports-related integration and its shortcomings; 3. Evolving policies of sports-related integration; 4. Broadening the problem in focus; 5. Rethinking programme techniques; 6. Critiquing expectations of social capital in sports; 7. Applying diversity management; 8. Conclusion: Recapitulating sports-related integration policies and programmes
Curran, C. (2017): Irish Soccer Migrants. A Social and Cultural History. Cork University Press.
This book looks at the experiences and achievement levels of Irish-born post-war soccer migrants to Britain. It draws on interviews with thirty Irish-born soccer players, each of whom has played league soccer in England or Scotland, using two players each from the Republic and Northern Ireland per decade.
This is the first book to use these migrants as a quantitative source, and to illustrate their experiences. It draws on extensive research conducted through a database of every Irish born player who played league soccer in England or Scotland between 1945 and 2010. An examination of the birthplaces of these players is offered along with the reasons for their geographical diversity. It discusses their childhood influences and assesses the recruitment process and identifies the clubs which have produced the most players. The impact of the Northern Ireland Troubles on the migration of Northern Ireland-born players is discussed while the attitudes of a number of players to this are assessed. An assessment of their working conditions and the culture of professional soccer is given while the book also examines the changing nature of the post-playing careers of these players.
In locating the study of Irish soccer migrants within the study of Irish migration to Britain and comparing the experience of Irish-born soccer players with those from other nations, this book is the first of its kind.
Mauro, M. (2016): The Balotelli Generation. Issues of Inclusion and Belonging in Italian Football and Society. Peter Lang.
Sports governing bodies, governments and European institutions highlight the inclusive power of sport and its capacity to foster a sense of belonging among youth of immigrant background. At the same time, sport at youth and grassroots level can be as much an exclusionary as an inclusive experience. As a country of relatively short immigration history and with a great passion for football, Italy makes a compelling case on which to situate an analysis of sport participation of youth of immigrant background and issues of representation in relation to national identity. The book originates from 40 in-depth interviews with young players aged seventeen to twenty-three, born in Italy to immigrant parents or raised in Italy since their childhood. It further collates over thirty interviews and conversations with coaches, club and league administrators, educators, and migrants’ rights activists. Analysis of official documents and media analysis further contribute to the construction of a specific body of knowledge which sheds an unprecedented light on issues which are at the forefront of policy discussions and media discourses across Europe.
Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1 Football, Social Inclusion and Belonging. Mapping the Ground; 2 Football, Immigration and Italian Society; 3 Inclusive Leisure or Institutional Discrimination?; 4 Challenges and (Missing) Opportunities; 5 Learning to cope with Racism; 6 The Meanings of Belonging; 7 Sporting Citizenship or Impaired Citizenship?; Conclusion Football and its Discontent
Eliott, R. & Harris, J. (eds.) (2015): Football and Migration. Perspectives, Places, Players. Routledge.
Football is an incredibly powerful case study of globalization and an extremely useful lens through which to study and understand contemporary processes of international migration. This is the first book to focus on the increasingly complex series of migratory processes that contour the contemporary game, drawing on multi-disciplinary approaches from sociology, history, geography and anthropology to explore migration in football in established, emerging and transitional contexts.
The book examines shifting migration patterns over time and across space, and analyses the sociological dynamics that drive and influence those patterns. It presents in-depth case studies of migration in elite men’s football, exploring the role of established leagues in Europe and South America as well as important emerging leagues on football's frontier in North America and Asia. The final section of the book analyses the movement of groups who have rarely been the focus of migration research before, including female professional players, elite youth players, amateur players and players’ families, drawing on important new research in Ghana, England, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Few other sports have such a global reach and therefore few other sports are such an important location for cross-cultural research and insight across the social sciences. This book is engaging reading for any student or scholar with an interest in sport, sociology, human geography, migration, international labour flows, globalization, development or post-colonial studies.
Scott, C.-G. (2015): African Footballers in Sweden. Race, Immigration, and Integration in the Age of Globalization. Springer.
This book employs men's football as a lens through which to investigate questions relating to immigration, racism, integration and national identity in present-day Sweden. Specifically, this study explores if professional football serves as a successful model of multiracialism/multiculturalism for the rest of Swedish society to emulate.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
2 The African Diaspora in the Global Football Market
3 Racism in Swedish Football and Society
4 Antiracism and Its Limitations in Swedish Football
5 African Footballers in Sweden
6 African Football Imports in the Eyes of Swedish Clubs
7 The African Football Experience in Sweden
8 Racism, Racialization, and Xenophobia
9 Conclusion
Agergaard, S. & Tiesler, N.C. (eds.) (2014): Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration. Routledge.
Estimated participation figures of almost 30 million worldwide make soccer the most prominent team sport amongst girls and women. However, making a living as a female player is only deemed possible in approximately 20 out of around 150 FIFA-listed women’s soccer countries. This has led to a situation where highly skilled sports women have to migrate from their homelands to find employment with a professional team. Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration represents a substantial contribution to our knowledge on the development of women’s soccer, to research into sports labor migration and sport and globalization more broadly.
The book consists of three parts. Firstly, it provides an overview and an analysis of migration in women's soccer from its earliest forms until now. It then presents several case studies, delivered by scholars from around the world, illustrating how female players are increasingly being drawn to the USA, Northern Europe and Scandinavia due to their ability to support professional leagues. Finally, all the presented themes and patterns are drawn together to be able to compare and contrast migration in women's soccer to sport migration and globalization more broadly.
This study not only makes recommendations for future researchers, but may also serve as an important source of information for those in charge of policy. As such, it is essential reading for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners involved in sports migration and women's sport.
Maguire, J. & Falcous, M. (eds.) (2011): Sport and Migration. Borders, Boundaries and Crossings. Routledge.
From Major League Baseball to English soccer’s Premier League, all successful contemporary professional sports leagues include a wide diversity of nationalities and ethnicities within their playing and coaching rosters. The international migration of sporting talent and labor, encouraged and facilitated by the social and economic undercurrents of globalization, mean that world sport is now an important case study for any student or researcher with an interest in international labor flows, economic migration, global demography or the interdependent world economy.
In this dazzling collection of papers, leading international sport studies scholars chart the patterns, policies and personal experiences of labour migration within and around sport, and in doing so cast important new light both on the forces shaping modern sport and on the role that sport plays in shaping the world economy and global society. Presenting original case studies of sports from European and African soccer to Japanese baseball to rugby union in New Zealand, the book makes an important contribution to our understanding of a wide range of issues within contemporary social science, such as national identity politics, economic structure and organization, north-south relations, imperial legacies and gender relations. This book is invaluable reading for students and researchers working in sport studies, human geography, economics or international business.
Carter, T.F. (2011): In Foreign Fields. The Politics and Experiences of Transnational Sport Migration. Pluto Press.
This book examines the lives, decisions and challenges faced by transnational sport migrants - those professionals working in the sports industry who cross borders as part of their professional lives.
Despite a great deal of romance surrounding international celebrity athletes, the vast majority of transnational sport migrants - players, journalists, coaches, administrators and medical personnel - toil far away from the limelight. Thomas Carter traces their lives, routes and experiences, documenting their travels and travails.
He argues that far from the ease of mobility that celebrity sports stars enjoy, the vast majority of transnational sports migrants make huge sacrifices and labour under political restrictions, often enforced by sport's governing bodies
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Sowing Transnational Fields; 1. Routes and Strategies of Transnational Migration; 2. Striding Across Fields of Global Sport; 3. Tensions of Sovereignty and Citizenship; 4. NEOsport and the Production of Transnational Sport Migrants; 5. Family Matters: Negotiating the Risks and Costs of Mobility; 6. Illegal Motion: Undocumented Migration and the Production of Illegality; Concluding Remarks: Experiencing the Politics of Transnational Migration
Bale, J. & Maguire, J. (eds.) (1994): The Global Sports Arena. Athletic Talent Migration in an Interdependent World. Frank Cass.
Athletes are on the move. In some sports this involves labour, movement from one country to another within or between continents. In other sports, athletes assume an almost nomadic migratory lifestyle, constantly on the move from one sport festival to another. In addition, it appears that sport migration is gaining momentum and that it is closely interwoven with the broader process of global sport development taking place in the late twentieth century.
Table of Contents:
1: Introduction: Sports Migration in the Global Arena; 2: The Road to Wigan Pier Revisited; 3: The Bogotá Affair; 4: Cricket and the Imperial Connection; 5: The Migration of Footballers; 6: Blue Bonnets over the Border; Two: Comparative Trends; 7: Dimensions of International Talent Migration in Latin American Sports; 8: Skating on Thin Ice? The International Migration of Canadian Ice Hockey Players; 9: Professional Sports Migration to Finland during the 1980s; 10: Do Markets Make Footballers Free?; 11: The Flood from the East? Perestroika and the Migration of Sports Talent from Eastern Europe; 3: Sports Migration; 12: Foreign Footballers, Cultural Dreams and Community Identity in some North-western Mediterranean Cities; 13: Trans-nationalism, Labour Migration and Latin American Baseball; 14: Out of Africa:; 15: American Labour Migrants, Globalization and the Making of English Basketball; 16: Travelling, Comparing, Emigrating
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