Politicisation of migrant leisure: a public and civil intervention involving organised sports

Abstract

Using the perspective of governmentality this article aims to contribute to an understanding of the rationalities of specific political interventions, and the techniques used to monitor the leisure activities of particular target groups. This process of politicization is revealed here through a case study of an intervention that provides sporting activities in holiday periods for migrant children and adolescents living in so-called socially disadvantaged areas (DGI Playground). The analysis highlights the rationality that the leisure time of migrant youth is a potentially dangerous time slot and they must be engaged in organized sports; that is not only healthy but also civilizing and character forming leisure time activities. Techniques of monitoring the intervention are developed in a partnership between public institutions, regional umbrella organizations and local sports clubs leading to a need for employment of welfare professionals. Furthermore, the article illustrates that in the discursive construction of subject positions for the target group, migrant youth tend to become clients and recipients of public services rather than potential members of civil sports clubs. These findings are supported by ethnographic interviews with participants that show how youngsters who took part in DGI Playground were able to reflect the official aim of the programme and relate this to their desire to have fun and hang out with their friends. The article ends with a discussion of the further scope of applying critical theoretical perspectives to studies of migrants’ leisure and sports activities.

Keywords:

• governmentality
• political thinking and techniques
• ethnicity
• socially deprived

Notes

1. Today, this is among others illustrated through the target groups mentioned in various public funds administrated by the Ministry of Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Affairs (Retrieved June 5, 2014 from http://sm.dk/arbejdsomrader/arbejdsomrader/tvaergaende-omrader/puljer).

2. Retrieved October 24, 2012 from http://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/4443E64E-3DEA-49B2-8E19-B4380D52F1D3/0/handlingsplan_radikalisering_2009.pdf.

3. So-called vulnerable or disadvantaged areas have been the focus of Danish welfare policy for quite some time. In 2005, the present government developed a so-called anti-ghetto, social housing strategy and since 2010, there has been a list of ghetto areas, which is revised once a year. The three criteria for being designated a ghetto and thereby a target for political intervention are: 1.The number of immigrants and their offspring from non-western countries exceeds 50%, 2. The number of 18–64-year-olds without job or education is above 40%, 3. There are more than 270 cases pr. 10,000 citizens, where inhabitants above 18 years have been sentenced for specific crimes. Retrieved October 29, 2012 from http://www.mbbl.dk/sites/mbbl.omega.oitudv.dk/files/dokumenter/Almbo/liste_over_saerligt_udsatte_boligomraader_pr_1_okt_2012.pdf.

4. For simplicity, DGI will be used here for both regional umbrella organisations.

5. Similary, the Danish sociologist Kasper Villadsen points to a historical development in discourses of social policy in Denmark, where social networks, voluntary organisations as well as individuals are drawn in new discursive formations of the client (Villadsen, 2007, p. 34).

6. See Lash (2007) for understandings of hegemonic and post-hegemonic power in cultural studies.