‘Football was the key’: the role of sports in facilitating migrants’ belonging and inclusion in Poland

ABSTRACT

While there is a growing body of literature examining the roles of sports for newly arrived migrants and refugees in ‘super-diverse’ Western settings, less is known about the roles of such initiatives in other urban contexts, where everyday forms of ‘living with difference’ are only just emerging. Poland has become one of the biggest importers of migrant workers from outside of the EU in recent years. Drawing on five ethnographic cases of sports initiatives in Warsaw and Gdańsk supported by the wider findings from 80 interviews with young migrants, refugees and migrant-support stakeholders, we explore sports’ potential in establishing footholds in the new environments. We also investigate barriers impeding more egalitarian access to sports, in particular, related to limited resources available to migrants and refugees. Our findings suggest that in less diverse urban settings informal sports initiatives gather migrants with established cultural and social resources which are needed to navigate with ease in a largely homogeneous environment. We argue that to include migrants and refugees from more precarious backgrounds and with less confidence to reach out, some level of facilitation of participation (‘curation’) is crucial in allowing more diverse groups to benefit from sports initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports
• inclusion
• belonging
• migrants
• refugees
• Poland

1. Introduction

The beneficial role of sport and leisure activities for the inclusion of migrants and asylum seekers has been widely discussed, but mainly in the context of Western urban settings (Flensner et al., 2021; Middleton et al., 2020; Nunn et al., 2021, Tuchel et al., 2021). Studies have demonstrated the productive role of sports and leisure activities in forging a sense of belonging to new communities and to new locations (Nunn et al., 2021), migrants empowerment and a sense of familiarity in a new locality (Horolets, 2015). Recent research has highlighted, in particular, the role of informal sport activities, organised with co-ethnics or others in a similar life-situation, allowing migrants to be connected to their previous lives and thus gain some sense of continuity (Middleton et al., 2020, p. 6). Importantly, participation in sports activities has been acknowledged especially for those in the most vulnerable situations: as having therapeutic effects for refugees struggling with acute stress or PTSD (e.g. Ley et al., 2018) and helping young migrants forget about their difficult life-situation, while at the same time offering them a sense of control and agency that they lacked during often traumatic journeys from their countries of origin (Middleton et al., 2021).

It does not mean, however, that sport participation automatically builds a sense of connectedness and inclusion (Middleton et al., 2020, p. 6). On the contrary, Middleton et al.’s meta-synthesis (Middleton et al., 2020) provides information on different barriers migrants and refugees may experience in this domain: they may be of logistical nature (entry fees, long commuting distance, etc.) or cultural or religious ones (different organisation of the events, linguistic barriers, etc.). Sport initiatives are not free from prejudice and racism, and are often experienced as discriminatory (Burdsey, 2006, 2011). Some point towards the limited time capacities and financial resources that prevent economic migrants from participation in any kind of sports in new localities despite earlier habits of sports engagement in their home countries (Spracklen et al., 2015), as well as the lack of time for engaging in any form of community activity in new countries (Jarosz & Gugushvili, 2020). These results suggest that the different forms of capital (economic, social and cultural) related to class resources and personal trajectories may also be important for accessing and benefitting from the integrative role of leisure activities.

In the West-European urban contexts, informal sport activities, where participants have more freedom in organising them according to their preferences, are often seen as more inclusive and empowering to the members of marginalised groups than more organised sports practices (Aquino et al., 2020). Such initiatives, often taking place in public or semi-public spaces such as parks or open courts, are perceived as more accessible for migrants and refugees for whom economic and cultural barriers to participation in formal sports are often difficult to overcome. However, in relation to the most marginalised migrant communities (such as refugees, people waiting for documents, lone women) publicly available infrastructure and initiatives may not be sufficient in encouraging participation. There are groups of migrants who might need extra ‘support’ to participate and join in (Rishbeth et al., 2019) and voluntary sports initiatives may need to be flexible and ready to adapt to different forms and formats in order to be suitable for the specific needs of groups of refugees (Tuchel et al., 2021). The recently developed ‘curated sociability’ approaches have highlighted the importance of establishing frameworks for safe and egalitarian participation for refugees and migrants in public urban space (Rishbeth et al., 2019). This has been seen as especially important for those participants who might not have the confidence, resources or established social networks to reach out and join in (ibid).

2. The role of sports initiatives in Eastern European migratory contexts

Historically, sports and leisure activities in Eastern Europe played an important ideological and political role in both moulding an ideal communist society and projecting an image of strength vis-à-vis decadent western societies (Girginov, 2004). In communist Poland, particular attention was placed on the democratisation and egalitarisation of culture and sports to widen social participation (Jung, 1994, p. 271). As Jung argues, among various leisure and sport practices, those of an individualistic character were often seen as ‘bourgeois’, while collective sport practices were seen as ‘proletarian’ and therefore encouraged. The democratisation of former communist countries and the introduction of the free market economy in 1989 marked a rapid decline of institutionalised club-based forms in the entire region. Before 1989, leisure activities had much more to do with taste and lifestyle aspirations and became a dividing line between the intelligentsia and the workers (Jung, 1994). After 1989, especially in the first decades of economic decline, sporting activities became the domain of the emerging middle class, in which sport participation was no longer a question of taste or lifestyle, but financial resources (Jung, 2004). This means that sport, while gaining in popularity and importance in recent years, especially among younger generations across the region, might still not be a dominant way of spending time among various strata of the population. At least to some extent, it remains a classed endeavour both for local residents and for migrants coming from other Eastern European countries, and a separating line between the educated, burgeoning urban middle class and less economically privileged suburban, peripheral or rural residents (c.f. Lenartowicz, 2016)

This article expands these discussions by investigating the role of sports initiatives in shaping migrants’ inclusion and sense of belonging in Eastern European urban contexts, which have so far been less explored. As Spaaij et al. (2019) highlight, the vast majority of the research in the area of sport and leisure in migrants’ lives has been conducted in Western European cities or global metropolises (Spaaij et al., 2019). With their long history of multicultural populations, super-diversity (Vertovec, 2007) and developed integration or inclusion policies, they constitute very specific field sites. Policymakers acknowledge the potential of sports activities in the integration process and thus secure funding for programmes aimed at migrants’ inclusion; sport clubs have their own traditions of running such projects, and they often employ persons responsible for reaching out to the most vulnerable (Flensner et al., 2021; Tuchel et al., 2021). This article aims to shed light on the role of sport participation in the under-researched area of Eastern Europe. We analyse the example of Poland, which recently began a transformation from a historical country of emigration to a country of immigration, receiving large numbers of migrants, predominantly from Ukraine, Belarus and other post-Soviet republics. The majority of Ukrainian citizens have been arriving as part of so-called ‘simplified procedures’ allowing them access to fast-track workers’ permits (Jóźwiak & Piechowska, 2017).¹ The majority of these migrants work as labourers, often on short-term contracts and in precarious labour positions (Górny et al., 2018). Poland, until recently, has not seen an increase in asylum applications, and the numbers of refugees and people offered international protection, especially in comparison to third country nationals arriving through the ‘simplified route’ described above, remain low. Large Polish cities have seen growing numbers of international students as well as a high-skilled labour force from the EU and non-EU countries (Górny & Kindler, 2018; Office for Foreigners, 2021).

In this article, we look at two Polish metropolitan areas, Warsaw and Tricity (consisting of three cities: Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia) which have seen a recent surge of immigration, especially in relation to other Polish localities, but where the presence of larger migrant communities is still a relatively new phenomenon. Thus, the routine and everyday character of multicultural encounters described in the context of western metropolises such as London or Berlin cannot be taken for granted (c.f. Flensner et al., 2021; Wessendorf, 2013). In the absence of significant state support for migrants and refugees, and despite the existence of a burgeoning refugee and migrant support sector, sport and recreational initiatives for migrant and refugee communities remain relatively scarce and heavily underfunded. They often focus on assisting with the most urgent needs, such as legal support or language classes. This means that the possibilities of encounter between migrants and longer term residents remain limited and have been additionally hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic. We therefore explore the understudied role of sport initiatives undertaken informally by groups of individual residents, and those of a more formal character in which migrants or refugees do take part. We ask about the scope of these initiatives for offering a sense of belonging and connection for (forced) migrants in their new localities, and the potential for establishing regular contacts between migrants as well as between migrants and longer term residents. We also discuss barriers to wider participation of migrant and refugee communities, which, as we will argue, may be related to specific positions on the labour market, class resources, as well as the historical and cultural roles of sports in Eastern Europe pre- and post-1989 (c.f. Girginov, 2004; Jung, 1994). Furthermore, we explore how the varied levels of organisation and structure inform the possibilities of egalitarian participation.

3. Methodology

This article draws from the Polish findings of the ‘Empowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions’ project funded by Horizon 2020 which aims at understanding the processes of settling in and developing autonomy among young migrants in vulnerable conditions in various European settings. In Poland, the fieldwork took place in two locations: Warsaw, the capital, which has seen a surge in migration in recent years, and the Tricity region that hosts an above average number of migrants due to the proximity of logistics centres and warehouses of leading FMCG food producers in Poland.

In particular, we base our findings on short ethnographies of five different sports initiatives that we came across in Warsaw and Tricity. The selection of these five case studies was a mix of purposive and convenience sampling. First, we chose two more organised cases based on earlier interviews with stakeholders working with migrants. Subsequently, we were purposefully looking for sport initiatives, which are less formalised and gather migrants living in Warsaw or Tricity. Among those that we came across we have selected the three (volleyball, cycling and frisbee) in order to have a sample diversified both in terms of the type of activity and migrants’ engagement. We refer to the method used as ‘short-ethnography’ (Pink & Morgan, 2013), involving in-depth participation in several sport initiatives over a shorter period of time. In order to explore each ethnographic case, we took part in training, games, tournaments and social gatherings as active observers and, at times, participants. These observations offered insight into the workings of these groups ‘in action’ and the social dynamics in place. We were able to witness verbal and non-verbal exchanges between members, latent and overt rituals, body language and other seemingly mundane details such as ways of dressing or punctuality, which might have been obscured if we had only stuck to interviews. We complemented this participant observation by conducting follow-up interviews with several of the sports initiative team members each time. In total, we conducted an additional 15 online or phone interviews lasting from 30 minutes to over 1 hour in which we had a chance to dwell on the personal histories of sports engagement of particular team members and ask additional questions in relation to the initiative’s social dynamics that we observed during the participant observation. Despite our efforts to span different migration and refugee networks, we later learned that the three informal initiatives that we came across gather mainly high- or higher-skilled migrants. The two more formal initiatives, while also biased towards the highly skilled and better educated, were much more diverse in terms of social make up as well as the different life situations of (forced) migrants attending.

Table

Type of sport Initiative	Description	Level of organisation
Weekly volleyball catch-up near Gdańsk	weekly beach volleyball session followed by a social event	informal, migrant-led participation of local population
Warsaw cycling group	migrant-led, weekly bicycle rides followed or interrupted by joint meal or drinks	informal, migrant-led with participation of local population
Frisbee group in Warsaw	local-led frisbee group which has at least one active non-Polish player and is open for more	informal, locally led with participation of migrants
Etnoliga	informal football league open to teams that consist of at least three nationalities and mixed gender, and including other community events	local-led with participation of migrants and refugees
AKS ZŁY sports club	grassroots and democratic sports club that includes male and female football teams, kids football academy, frisbee team.	local-led with participation of migrants and refugees
Source: own elaboration

We present the results of these short ethnographies set against the backdrop of our wider findings. As part of our research, we conducted 40 interviews with migrant, refugee and local recreational and cultural-sector stakeholders in Warsaw and the Tricity region, and a further 40 interviews with young migrants in disadvantaged social positions, asylum seekers and people who had obtained refugee status in those two localities. While not forming the central part of the analysis offered in this article, this broader research gave us an in-depth understanding of the range of support services available for migrants and refugees in Poland at the reception stage, as well as existing integration initiatives offered at the local level (including sports and leisure). The interviews with vulnerable migrants and refugees gave us an insight into the benefits and barriers related to egalitarian participation in the life of local communities and an understanding of how they perceive and use public spaces in their local communities. These insights have been crucial in offering reasons for the absence of these most vulnerable groups in the researched sport initiatives.

4. Results

4.1. Benefits of participation in informal sports activities: connecting with similar people

When we reach the meeting place of the informal weekly Volleyball Catch-up Group at one of the public beaches in Tricity on Saturday afternoon, Maha, a Palestinian PhD student from Lebanon, one of the organisers, is on his own waiting for the others, close to the volleyball pitch. Conveniently located, the public volleyball pitch is about 5 minutes’ walk from the suburban train station which offers relatively easy and inexpensive access to the site. When the lockdown eased in summer 2020, he set up a Facebook group inviting people to play volleyball and socialise. ‘Everybody was hungry for social contacts and looking for opportunities to meet’ – Maha smiles. As we chat with him, other people join us, for example, Jonas from Portugal, who came to Poland from London to join his Polish girlfriend. The atmosphere is casual and convivial (c.f. Gilroy, 2004), people display kindness and mutual interest. In their flawless English, they speak about their jobs, about what they like about the beaches in Tricity and when is the best time to play volleyball.

When we later ask Maha what it is that draws him to the group, he talks about the importance of these connections:

The nice thing about this group is that there are Polish people which helps me to integrate with the local community and know more and more about Poland and foreigners from so many countries where I get to know several traditions and cultures.

Rima, a French-Moroccan girl, who has lived in Poland for 6 years, emphasises that any sustained contact, be it in a workplace, a language group or a volleyball meet-up, creates opportunities for making friends, yet without the social pressure for a constant exchange.

The good thing about volleyball is that having an activity to do eases the link between both communities – in such cases as it’s not only about speaking.

While many participants seek diversity and contacts with the local community, Jonas points to something else. For him, attending volleyball meet-ups is about ‘meeting up with people who go through the same experience as I am’. His needs of connecting to the local community are fulfiled by his Polish girlfriend and her social network. In the volleyball team – he looks for people who are going through the same experience of migrating and settling down in Gdańsk. He looks for ‘sameness’ and ‘familiarity’.

When they start playing, each team wants to win, but there is no pressure for the results and a lot of jokes and laughter. Maha says that after the game ends, they continue to socialise. They might set a bonfire on the beach or go to a nearby restaurant. Some people join these social activities solely.

Several weeks later, we hurry to a meeting point in one of the main squares of Warsaw to meet Fabrizio, who set up an informal cycling group in Warsaw and runs regular bike rides in the evenings or at the weekend. Despite being late, we see a single guy on a bike, who looks around and checks his phone occasionally. Fabrizio is casually dressed, looking more ready for a city stroll than an overtly sporty adventure. Originally from Bari in Italy, in Warsaw for just over a year, he works in the HR business in Warsaw. He finds cycling in Warsaw a great way to get to know the city, do some exercise and meet new people.

We are soon joined by several people who share something in common with the volleyball group from Gdańsk. They all speak fluent English and have a certain ease in maintaining cordial and spontaneous conversation and laughter. The bikers seem to be at ease with each other, some people know each other from earlier sessions, and half of them are newcomers. Nastasia, originally from Ukraine, has been in town for over 5 years and works in bank operations. Asked about the social makeup of the cycling events, she talks of a certain degree of exposure that one needs to have to be able to participate.

We are open to everyone, but indeed my informed guess would be that they need to be a bit ‘worldly’ to feel good around us.

When we ask if they are ever joined by Poles, she replies:

Yes, there are Poles who participate, but they are not really Polish Polish. They might have lived in another country, or worked in an international environment. They have a certain exposure.

When we ask for an explanation, she clarified that, for her, being ‘worldly’ comes from the experience of travelling, meeting other people, having spent time in an international crowd, something that neither Polish Polish people nor the Ukrainian workers we asked about have, in her opinion.

In parallel, we connect with another informal initiative, one of Warsaw’s most active frisbee groups. In contrast to the volleyball and cycling group which are migrant-led endeavours, this one is a local group, but we hear from other groups that we speak to during our desk-research phase that several migrants have been part of it and at least one is very active. First, we speak to Marcin, who is one of the team captains. He joined the team 4 years ago through an ‘open training session’, but most of the participants join through friends of friends. While the group cares about frisbee and takes tournaments seriously, the social aspect, like in the case of the volleyball and bike ride catch-ups, seems to be one of the crucial things that motivates him to stay.

We return to the threads related to members and access. In response to our question about the social make-up of their frisbee group, he says:

We certainly do not resemble Polish society. We do not treat ourselves too seriously. Frisbee itself is quite a peculiar game. There is this absurd-looking plate. There are no referees, but a strict code of conduct. There is a requirement of mixed gender teams and equal rights of men and women on the pitch is super-important. We share similar worldviews: on ecology, respect for LGBTQ rights and other minorities. The world of frisbee is not just a Warsaw bubble, it’s a Warsaw of Warsaw.

Not attracting ‘real’ Polish Polish people and being the Warsaw of Warsaw seem to be a common thread that links these informal sport initiatives when it comes to participation of the local population and the absence of migrants with more working class-backgrounds and/or vulnerable backgrounds. Nevertheless, they still play an important role in participants’ inclusion in their cities of residence, as they allow them to meet new people from the locality, know the locality better and they enhance their sense of belonging.

4.2. Barriers of participation in informal sports initiatives. Who is absent?

Each of the above-discussed initiatives offers a way for people to connect and develop networks that are important for participants in sustaining themselves as migrants in Warsaw and Gdańsk. The cordial atmosphere and convivial relations can be read as indicative of what Glick-Schiller et al. (2011) call ‘cosmopolitan sociability’ defined as ‘human competencies that create social relations of inclusiveness’ and openness to difference. This informality and openness, coupled with tacit and unspoken rules of politeness and a code of conduct, simultaneously create an invisible threshold that applies both to members of these groups (i.e. in resolving disagreements) and to people from outside. These invisible conditions of entry and participation mean that people with a lack of international cultural capital and ‘cosmopolitan’ sensitivity – both other migrants and other Poles – may simply not be able to pass.

The day before joining the volleyball catch-up, we interviewed several young Ukrainian factory workers in Pruszcz Gdański (a suburban town in proximity of Gdańsk), who provided us with the perspective of those who were absent from the sport initiatives we managed to come across. When asked about recreation and sports, most of them did declare that they sometimes ‘go to the beach’ or they were planning to go to the beach, but in reality, their working patterns mean they rarely have time to do so. We struggled to imagine them being able to join the volleyball group. Even if they would be prepared to invest 10 PLN (2EUR) to buy a train ticket from Pruszcz to Gdańsk, which is not insignificant given the precarious contracts they have and level of their salaries, we also struggled to imagine if they would be able to put on the cosmopolitan gear of cordiality to get on and have fun in this volleyball context (c.f Glick-Schiller et al., 2011). The informality and openness of the volleyball group did not mean that there were no rules of engagement. This ‘worldliness’ that Nastasia spoke about, while ensuring a sense of safety and cosmopolitan familiarity, might be something that excludes other people who might not have the access to the same cultural and social resources (Bourdieu, 1984). As Joanas said, the Gdańsk group was a group of people who were going more or less through the same experiences, and the experiences of those highly skilled, performing white collar jobs were very different from economic migrants working in precarious conditions.

This gave us insight into unequally distributed economic, social and cultural resources that support or hinder participation (Bourdieu, 1984). The working conditions of the Ukrainian factory workers from Pruszcz meant that they had simply no time or energy to invest in sports or leisure activities and no ‘headspace’ to follow through which echoes recent research with Ukrainian migrants who report a lack of ‘free time’ as one of the main challenges of their everyday lives in Poland (Kindler et al., 2022). Some, like Ana, worked on three shifts, which made establishing a routine really difficult, and she felt wrecked after returning from work. ‘Most people I know are really focused on work and making as much money as possible; this means they do not look for connections and ways of spending free time’ – Dimitra told us, a Ukrainian mum from Pruszcz, who was undertaking a vocational training course in cosmetics. Her remark echoes the observations of Polish and Somali migrant workers in Leeds about the exclusive focus on work (cf Spracklen et al., 2015). Some young Ukrainian workers we spoke to in Warsaw had only one day off in which they could really relax. Prompted for leisure and sports initiatives, they would mention rare strolls to the park, to fitness centres, or for a barbeque at Zegrze lake. Most often, these activities were taken up in family circles or in very close circles of Ukrainian-only friends. Those rare days of relaxation were not seen as a window of adventure, getting to know ‘new people’ (and going beyond one’s comfort zone), but mainly as moments of chilling out and settling into something familiar and relaxing.

Another potential reason for the absence of sports in the lives of our participants with working-class jobs was the lack of a tradition of engaging in sports in their home country, which speaks to the wider evolution of the role of sports in Eastern Europe post 1989 (Jung, 2004). While, as we have demonstrated above, collective sports used to be part of the daily lives of the older generations, after 1989, they became a ‘middle class’ endeavour that required financial resources. Those of our research participants who actively practised sports in their home countries had no financial resources to continue in Poland. For instance, as part of our wider research, we spoke to two Ukrainian brothers, who combined working in a shopping-mall kebab store with studying part-time. They told us about their sailing career back in Ukraine, but on their arrival to Poland their family simply had no economic resources to support them in continuing this relatively expensive sport. Our findings suggest that the engagement in sports initiatives of participants from Pruszcz Gdański was different from the practices of migrants living in Gdańsk or Warsaw. While these differences may be to some extent connected to the scarcity of such initiatives in smaller cities like Pruszcz, it is the combined effect of different types of migration patterns (low-skilled, more temporal character of migration) and different socio-economic and cultural resources of migrants that play a pivotal role here.

4.3. How to overcome the challenges of participation?

4.3.1. The role of self-confidence in reaching out and finding friends

Taking into account the scarcity and relative invisibility of publicly available sport initiatives in our research locations, we would like to highlight the confidence and stamina needed to join these initiatives. For instance, Daphne has been the most active non-Polish person on the frisbee team. Originally French, she moved to Lublin from California where she lived most of her life. She used to play frisbee back at home and was determined to continue her pastime in Poland. She knew that playing frisbee was an important part of who she was and how happy she would be in Poland. Once she failed to convince enough people to set up a group in Lublin, she started touring Poland to join other groups for tournament games.

I did not have a local network, but I really wanted to play. I started travelling for Ultimate Frisbee Polska tournaments. I knew zero people there, so I was nervous. On my first event I broke my finger. I was so scared, but several people from the tournament immediately took care of me, and took me to the hospital and offered me a couch.

Eventually, she joined one of Warsaw’s frisbee initiatives. Initially, she was commuting from Lublin (100 km) twice a week, but at some point, it became too much. She convinced her boyfriend to move to Warsaw and he agreed. The last 3 years of her life in Poland have become much more satisfying.

My frisbee group is my network, my social life, my resources … my life.

For Daphne, the group has become her closest circle of friends, but also her main reference point for orientation, contacts and support in Warsaw. All three jobs that she has had in Warsaw since her arrival in the city were secured through the people in the group.

We hear similar determination in reaching out and connecting to other people in Salem’s narrative about his experience in joining the informal cycling group. Back in Tunisia, Salem took part in youth activism circles and this is where he learned about the importance of making connections and stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

Of course, I do not always feel like going out, but I am trying to be as active as possible in these circles. There is always a chance that you will meet your soulmate, or maybe that this social event may lead to opportunities in which someone will help you or you can be of help to someone.

When listening to Salem’s story, it feels like he has a ‘script’ of action that helps him to connect with other people as he settles into a new place. He knows exactly what he needs to feel better and surround himself with people, and has the necessary confidence to reach out. For him, the cycling group is not only about meeting people but about connecting to the city better and getting to know different parts of the city. Even in moments where he has doubts about taking part, he convinces himself to go out because he knows he will feel better; it will help him to connect and feel more positive about his life and about the place where he lives.

Getting to know the city makes you feel more connected, you feel part of the city. Having a bike ride can help you to visualise the city and have a sense of the city.

Both Daphne and Salem have brought with them to Poland experiences and skills that they actively use to find their way in a predominantly Polish-speaking environment (Bourdieu, 1984). Daphne’s desire to continue with a sport that was part of her identity echoes experiences of other migrants, who find familiarity and belonging in new places (Horolets, 2015; Rishbeth & Powell, 2013). What stands out is their determination and desire to go beyond their comfort zone in looking for these connections. The informal initiatives that we came across offered benefits for migrants, who had at least some social resources (such as connections with other migrants or local people in Warsaw or knowledge of existing social networks) and/or cultural resources (‘the worldliness’ and confidence in reaching out) available which they could use to find, reach out and participate. Those with less available resources and in more precarious situations which means less free time and ‘headspace’ available (see, Kindler et al., 2022) meant that embarking on such a personal journey was often out of reach.

4.3.2. How structure and some level of formality support entry and participation

In our attempt to understand how to minimise barriers and facilitate the participation of people with various migration backgrounds in sport activities, we also explored more formal sport initiatives. We spent several evenings at the Open Football Training of Etnoliga, a cross-cultural football league that has been running in Warsaw for over 15 years. Etnoliga was established with a view to promoting integration and fighting exclusion, to support people with migration and refugee backgrounds, as well as to fight gender discrimination on the pitch. To this end, each team needs to have at least three nationalities represented and at least three women, including two playing in each game. Apart from the regular season that begins in September, in which teams compete under a round robin system, it runs a series of open training sessions and other social events which offer the chance for interested players to come, see and, potentially, join a team. As one of the founders of Etnoliga told us in the interview: ‘it was meant to be helpful for the so-called “pre-integration” for people who have recently come to Poland and may not know the language, so that they could come and meet others in a similar situation’.

When we join the open training ahead of time, the pitch is already pretty packed. There seems to be a mix of newcomers and ‘old-timers’ changing into their sports gear and chatting informally in different languages. As we quickly learn, some are there to play and have fun, some have longer term plans and are there to look for teams. The possibility to train on this type of pitch for free (artificial grass, well lit and well designed) is a treat, not just for newcomers, but for regular players too.

In the open training, we establish a few contacts and several players agree to follow up with phone call interviews. We first speak with Eduardo, from a team whose squad is dominated by players from South America. He has been in Warsaw for over 4 years now and has just finished his PhD at Warsaw Polytechnic. He recalls the first months in Warsaw as really difficult, despite his circumstances being, as he claims, ‘pretty nice’. He quickly explains that ‘football was the key’ to establishing his life in the Polish capital. It was something he brought along from his country of origin, something that was both familiar to him and an important part of his identity. In Warsaw, it served as a way to connect. First, he learned about informal football catch-ups organised in his department, which was his first opportunity to meet people and socialise informally. Later, when his colleague told him about Etnoliga, he quickly contacted the captain of the Latin American team and was invited for a training session.

And basically, on this training I met all the friends I have here, most of them are Colombians, Spanish and some others from Central America, Honduras, Mexico, so basically because of football I met all the friends I have here.

While his main focus is within his team, which echoes the experiences of the informal initiatives described above, he appreciates the atmosphere of Etnoliga and stands behind its ideological focus to remain open to refugees and the most marginalised migrants. To him, the purpose of Etnoliga is to help people feel ‘at home’ and he appreciates the efforts to make it as inclusive as possible:

I remember, the third time I played in a tournament, refugees from different countries had just created the team. At first, they did not do well, but by the third round they did ok.

Eduardo also talks about the surrounding events, such as cooking festivals and parties that accompany the life of Etnoliga. Several weeks later, we meet him at the Saturday event for refugees, where he is busy facilitating a lottery for young refugee kids.

In a similar vein, Kacper, one of the Polish players we interviewed later, is vocal about the role and opportunities for migrants to meet people, but also the role that Etnoliga may play in shifting migrants’ perception of Poles:

There are not so many foreigners in Poland and thanks to this initiative they have a chance to see that they are not alone (…) I hope that migrants who attend this event have a chance to de-mystify Poland. Poland is somewhat xenophobic, but it of course does not mean that all Poles are like that. Thanks to this initiative, they [migrants] not only feel part of a bigger team, but, I hope Poland becomes in their eyes a more tolerant and open place.

At the same time, Kacper is aware of the challenges that people in more precarious and vulnerable situations may face in joining the team, as he highlights the role of ‘access to information’ about training sessions and tournaments, which are passed mainly by word of mouth. His words confirm how difficult it is to reach those who are the most isolated, for whom such programs or initiatives are designed and who would probably greatly benefit from them. It also suggests that in order to include those marginalised, some level of ‘curation’ of participation experience is essential (Rishbeth et al., 2019). The ‘curated sociability’ approaches involve varied strategies, technologies and projects that can be used to support migrants and refugees in visiting and benefiting from urban greenspace’ (p. 127). While they coined the term in reference to the greenspace use, we see the value in expanding its use to other recreational and sport activities where some level of participation support could increase migrants’ ease and confidence to take part. By this, we mean going beyond making the initiative ‘open’ for everyone and actively reaching out to those who might not have social or cultural resources to find it by themselves and join. With this in mind, the organisers of both Etnoliga and AKS Zły (‘The Bad’ Alternative Sports Club), described below, make a very conscious and persistent effort to include migrants, refugees and other persons in vulnerable conditions and to promote equality and openness (c.f. Doidge et al., 2020). The way they do it is inspired by programs such as voluntary sport clubs (VSC) in Germany or similar examples in Sweden (Flensner et al., 2021; Tuchel et al., 2021). However, unlike in the north European contexts where public funding of such initiatives is more systematic, in Poland, it is irregular and unsteady. Therefore, the scale of programs is much more limited in scope and hangs upon committed individuals determined to create such initiatives.

AKS Zły, established in 2015, is the ‘first democratic’ sports club in Warsaw that has a football, basketball and frisbee team, as well as an informal sports academy for kids in the making. The democratic character of the club means that everyone (players, coaches and supporters) may become a member and take part in managing the club and making decisions. The idea of the founders of the club was to create a safe space for people, including those representing diverse minorities, who do not feel comfortable in major Warsaw stadiums and to promote openness, tolerance and football as a way to connect people. Migrants are members of the squad of both male and female football teams, which play in regional leagues. At weekends, the stadium, located in Warsaw’s Praga neighbourhood, which has the reputation of being a ‘bad district’, attracts people from all over the city who support the progressive values of the club. Attracting refugees to come to the stadium and join the community, which was an important goal of the founders, constituted a major challenge. Thus, before opening up, together with players, they toured refugee centres in Warsaw, organising training sessions and tournaments for kids and youth there and then inviting both children and adults to the matches at weekends. Refugee children escort players entering the pitch, and their mothers help in organising support or just observe the game. As Robert, one of the founders tells us:

This is a small stadium, you quickly recognize people, you get to know them. It’s about creating new perspectives that can be very different: someone may find a job, some may meet a partner or friends, or just spend a nice time. The idea was that this is natural, it’s not forced (…) we would love to create a community.

In order for this to happen, they engage in diverse events, with and for migrants and refugees, collaborating closely with NGOs acting in this domain. These efforts result in including young refugees, female migrants and migrants from different groups, i.e. persons who would otherwise not know about the initiative nor consider it as a place to spend time.

5. Discussion and conclusions

The aim of our article was to analyse the role of sport initiatives in facilitating migrants’ participation and a sense of belonging in two localities in Poland, taking into account their different level of formalisation. The context of ‘emerging multiculturalism’, which differentiates our research sites from Western European urban locations, means that the majority of existing sports initiatives are hardly the sites of ‘commonplace diversity’ (Wessendorf, 2013). The relative lack of diversity creates specific conditions for the functioning of both informal and more organised sports initiatives. Furthermore, the intended temporal or circular character of a large proportion of migration to Poland means that many migrants in lower-skill jobs, like our participants in Pruszcz Gdański, need to prioritise their (low-paid) work to be able to save money to send it back to their families and do not have free time or mental resources (‘headspace’) needed to take part in sport activities. It seems that in their rare time ‘off work’ they often choose recreational activities that are focused on regeneration such as barbeque or beer-drinking in the communal garden or a local park. Like in the case of sports, we see the potential value of these low-key recreational activities to establish footholds in migrants’ local environments and connect with the places where they live, but this goes beyond the scope of our case studies and needs further research.

For those, who were able to take part in sports, both informal and more formalised sports initiatives we researched play an important role in encouraging social connections and fostering feelings of belonging and being ‘at home’ among migrants who are part of those groups. They all seem to extend their sports and leisure role, and for many, participants become their first ‘go-to’ network of support, safety and connection, which echoes the existing results on the beneficial role of sport and leisure activities (Aquino et al., 2020; Middleton et al., 2020). They allow participants to feel more familiar in the cities they inhabit (Horolets, 2015) and help them imagine and relate to the city on a personal level.

While we acknowledge that, in some cases, the informal character of sport initiatives makes them more accessible to marginalised participants and gives them an opportunity of creating and managing the activities in accordance with their needs (Aquino et al., 2020), we also found some limitations of the inclusive potential of informal sports. The relative lack of diversity in the researched Eastern European urban contexts reinforces the ‘same-as me’ character of these informal initiatives. The informal groups that we describe tend to be migrant-led with a small local presence or locally led with a small migrant presence. They seem to attract those who possess a similar type of social and cultural capital, which limits their potential of social mixing and leads to difficulties in taking part for those who are more isolated or have fewer social resources.

Thus, the absence of formal ‘entry barriers’ in the informal initiatives that we have come across does not mean that they are more inclusive in terms of their social make-up, as the participation requires social and cultural capital. It begins with where and how they advertise their open trainings and weekly catch-ups. The fact that they are advertised on the English-speaking FB websites for ‘expats’, or circulated through friends of friends, means that while these groups remain open for everybody to join, their actual public visibility is very low. Even if the majority of the described initiatives take place in public space, it does not mean that joining them is easy for a number of social and cultural factors that we have indicated.

This relative lack of visibility means that migrants and refugees, who might be interested in joining, need to have social skills not only to find initiative of interest which might advertise only in Polish or English but also, like in Daphne’s case, confidence and determination to step outside of their comfort zone to function in a largely Polish-speaking environment. The stamina and ability to step out of one’s comfort zone is crucial if someone does not have any social network yet, or is joining a group which is homogeneous in terms of make-up, and draws attention to a lack of or insufficient language skills. Furthermore, we argue that this kind of confidence and determination, along with awareness that participation in such activities is beneficial, is also connected with one’s migratory situation.

Thus, we argue that informal sport groups play a vital role in building social connections and a sense of belonging, but mostly with those in similar life situations, i.e. for people who share many middle-class resources such as being relatively well educated, having high-skilled jobs which allow ‘free time’ after work, and most importantly, having a certain ease of behaviour related with social and cultural capital that allows them to confidently mingle with strangers and acquaintances. The absence of migrants in less privileged situations in these informal initiatives confirms what Rojek (2010) observed with reference to leisure activities: that in contemporary societies, they can reinforce the existing inequalities.

Among the initiatives we researched, it seemed that, in overcoming the above barriers, the initiatives with slightly more formalised structures and outreach potential offered greater potential to cater for a more diverse class-wise and status-wise migrant population (c.f., Doidge et al., 2020). While having their limitations, the rules of engagement and the conscious effort to be open and reach out to the most vulnerable groups of migrants and refugees means they actually make participation easier. Thus, we take the ‘curated sociability’ approach, described in terms of facilitating asylum seekers’ inclusion to urban greenspaces (Rishbeth et al., 2019), and argue that similar strategies are beneficial in the domain of sport activities. The ‘curated’ rules of engagement (such as nationality quotas or reaching out to refugee communities) make participation easier. The size and variety of roles available in these more formal initiatives offer wider options for taking part, even in a very loose form. One can join as a player, as an occasional fan or a person attending side events, or as a parent accompanying a child. These multiple ways of ‘taking part’ and ‘staying in touch’ encourage participation without the social pressures often present in smaller groups where, as we demonstrated, there is more expectation to socialise as the lingua franca of participation (c.f. Glick-Schiller et al., 2011). In other words, we believe that a certain level of ‘curation’ of sport initiatives is productive in ensuring diversity and inclusion for those migrants and refugees who might not have enough confidence or resources to do so otherwise. The ‘curated’ approach is needed, therefore, to make those initiatives more visible and thus accessible to people. This is especially important in the context of a city that is only emerging as ‘multicultural’ and ‘super-diverse’, where such initiatives are rare and need encouragement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 870700.

Notes on contributors

Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek

Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek is a visual sociologist based at the SWPS University of Social Sciences in Warsaw. Her research focuses on the embodied and affective experiences of (forced) migration and the role of public space in supporting community integration, recently as part of the Horizon 2020 project ‘MIMY Empowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions’.

Agnieszka Trąbka

Agnieszka Trąbka is a migration researcher with a background in sociology and psychology. She is based in the Institute of Applied Psychology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and in the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. She has studied post-2004 migration to the UK and currently focuses on the integration of young migrants and refugees in Poland in the frames of Horizon 2020 project “MIMY: EMpowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions”.

Notes

1. This article was completed before the Russian invasion in Ukraine, which caused a significant surge in refugee arrivals from Ukraine to Poland