L’accueil des migrants par le sport : l'Europe à la croisée de philoso-phies politiques différenciées

Abstract

There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of displaced people arriving in Eu-rope in mid-2010. The reception of these populations has resulted in controversial res-ponses and varying degrees of support, reflecting contrasting ideas of citizenship analyzed as 'political philosophies' (Favell, 1998). Many sports programmes for the inclusion of mi-grants have been developed in this context. However, the political objectives of these initia-tives remain unclear beyond claims of the vague social and educational benefits of sport (Gasparini, 2008). Based on a cross-sectional survey of the objectives of 258 sports pro-grammes, this paper identifies three “Ideal Types” (Weber, 1971) of political philosophies of the use of sport for migrant populations: emancipation - emphasizing the free develop-ment and well-being of individuals - integration - aiming to foster social affiliation through language and work - and protection - based on a logic of physical and/or psychological care. Although in reality none of the programmes sticks exclusively to these ideal types, and the boundaries between the categories are blurred, highlighting them enables us to en-visage a political analysis of these sports programmes and of the impacts they hope to achieve