REFUGEES IN EUROPEAN GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL: FROM ASSUMPTIONS TO EVIDENCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30925/slpdj.2.1.2Keywords:
Grassroots Football , Volunteers , Migration , Refugees , Asylum Seekers , Integration , InclusionAbstract
Since 2015-2016, when the European continent underwent an unprecedented peak in demands for asylum, grassroots football clubs have been at the forefront in offering refugees a place of first contact with their new host society. The perception of the impact that their initiatives may have had on their target population is however almost exclusively based on some widely shared basic assumptions drawn from anecdotal evidence and, marginally, on a small body of literature grounded in local studies of ethnographic nature.
The article recapitulates the inception and implementation of an original mixed-method research survey within the framework of two successive practice-oriented projects led by civil society actors and supported by the ERASMUS+ Sport funding scheme. Following a literature review, it describes the survey design, analyses the findings, and discusses the added value and limits of this research focused on the principal target group of volunteers in European grassroots football.
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