Whiteness, Blackness and Settlement: Leisure and the Integration of New Migrants

Abstract

At times of economic uncertainty the position of new migrants is subject to ever closer scrutiny. While the main focus of attention tends to be on the world of employment the research on which this paper is based started from the proposition that leisure and sport spaces can support processes of social inclusion yet may also serve to exclude certain groups. As such, these spaces may be seen as contested and racialised places that shape behaviour. The paper draws on interviews with White migrants from Poland and Black migrants from Africa to examine the normalising of whiteness. We use this paper not just to explore how leisure and sport spaces are encoded by new migrants, but how struggles over those spaces and the use of social and cultural capital are racialised.

Keywords:

• Integration
• Leisure
• Migrants
• Othering
• Spaces
• Whiteness

Acknowledgements

As with much of the research conducted at the Institute for Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure we have benefited from the contributions of colleagues. In this case we gratefully acknowledge the roles played by Dr Hannah Lewis and Dr Milton Obamba.

Notes

[1] We note that those other migrants who have assimilated may have similar expectations of new arrivals.

[2] Putnam (2000) did acknowledge the possibility of dark capital working in this negative way, but chose not to develop it.