Migraciones (Nov 2017)
Researching local sports initiatives for young migrants from a political perspective: methodological and practical challenges
Abstract
The processes of incorporation of young migrants have been studied using a range of new approaches. Among them, sports and physical activity have been claimed as a space for social and cultural integration. To date, most research has been based mainly on ethnographic and grassroots perspectives to better understand the experiences of sports practices of migrants and their families. However, fewer contributions have focused on the political discourse on sports as a field of integration. This article explores methodological challenges arosen when choosing sports policies as a field of study. The main methodological challenges considered include the contested conceptualizations of the target population in sports initiatives and the development of comparative selection criteria for different levels of institutional participants. An indepth analysis of these methodological issues can help to reflect on the ideological constructs of sports as a field of integration and highlight the contribution of the political sociological perspective to existing migration studies.
