News:
Refugees are participating in two major international sporting events over the
next two months. Today is the opening day of the
2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
A team of 37 refugee athletes will be competing in 12 different sports. More
info is
available
on the official Paris Olympics website. The Paralympic Games begin on 28
August 2024, and
include a
refugee team of eight athletes and one guide runner competing in six
sports.
Related UNHCR press releases include:
- At Paris Olympics opening, UNHCR’s Grandi hails refugee athletes as a
beacon of hope and peace (26 July 2024) [
text]
- IPC unveils largest Refugee Paralympic Team ever for Paris 2024 (9 July
2024) [
text]
- IOC Refugee Olympic Team to represent more than 100 million displaced
people at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 (2 May 2024) [
text]
UNHCR publications:
Evaluation on the Relevance and Effectiveness of Sport Programming for
Refugee Inclusion and Protection, EVO/2022/12 (UNHCR & IOC, April
2022) [
text]
More Than a Game: The UNHCR Sport Strategy 2022-2026 (Nov. 2022) [
text]
Sport for Protection Toolkit: Programming with Young People in Forced
Displacement Settings (UNHCR, IOC & Terre des Hommes, Oct. 2018) [
text]
Olympic Games: Objectives & Assessments
"Disrupting the global refugee crisis or celebrity humanitarianism? Media
frames of the Refugee Olympic Team at 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo summer
games,"
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3 (2022) [
ResearchGate]
Diversity at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: Gender, Race and Refugees
(CAp-UERJ, 2023) [
open access]
- Scroll to p. 133 for the section that focuses on refugees.
Olympic Refuge: safe spaces for sport (Olympic Refuge Foundation, 2020) [
text]
Refugee Olympic Team: A Message of Hope and Solidarity - Media Kit
(International Olympic Committee, 2021) [
text]
"Respecting the Right to Nationality in International Sport," Chapter in
Sports and Human Rights (Springer, 2024) [
open access]
- Scroll to p. 149.
"Understanding Olympic Diplomacy: The Refugee Team at the 2020 Tokyo
Games,"
Cuerpo Cultura y Movimiento, vol. 13, no. 1 (2023) [
open access]
General:
"Editorial: Realising the cross-cutting potential of sport in situations
of forced displacement,"
BMJ Global Health, vol. 7, no. 4
(2022) [
open access]
Research based interventions in the sports ecosystem (Sportanddev.org, Nov.
2022) [
text]
- "Inclusive and collaborative research is needed to better address the
needs of forcibly displaced people."
"'Should I really be here?’: Problems of trust and ethics in PAR with
young people from refugee backgrounds in sport and leisure,"
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3 (2022) [
open access]
- Focuses on Participatory Action Research.
Sport, Forced Migration and the 'Refugee Crisis' (Routledge,
Feb. 2023) [
open access]
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3 (2022) [
contents]
- Special issue on "Forced Migration and Sport." The introduction is
freely available and four articles are open access. Note: This was
subsequently
published as a book.
"Sport, Refugees, and Forced Migration: A Critical Review of the
Literature,"
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 10 Oct.
2019 [
open access]
"A Systematic Review of Research on Sport Migration,"
Migration & Diversity, vol. 1, no. 1 (2022) [
open access]
Integration & Belonging:
"Beyond integration: football as a mobile, transnational sphere of belonging
for refugee-background young people,"
Leisure Studies, Latest Articles,
12 Aug. 2021 [
open access]
"Critically examining a community-based participatory action research project
with forced migrant youth,"
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3
(2022) [
open access]
"Developing a multi-level framework for analyzing public sports-based
programmes to integrate migrants and refugees into organized sports,"
Sport in Society, vol. 27, no. 7 (2024) [
open access]
"European voluntary sport clubs’ enabling and constraining effects on
refugees’ social inclusion: an integrative review,"
Sport in Society,
Latest Articles, 4 April 2024 [
open access]
"Informal sport and (non)belonging among Hazara migrants in Australia,"
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 49, no. 17 (2023) [
open access]
"Migrant Integration and Cultural Capital in the Context of Sport and Physical
Activity: A Systematic Review,"
Journal of International Migration and Integration, vol. 20, no. 3
(Aug. 2019) [
open access]
"Team and Nation: Sports, Nationalism, and Attitudes Toward Refugees,"
Comparative Political Studies, vol. 54, no. 12 (Oct. 2021) [
open access]
- Focuses on the 2019 Africa Cup football match between Kenya and Tanzania.
"Ukrainian refugees and the Swedish sports movement: new opportunities and
challenges,"
European Sport Management Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 3 (2024)
[
open access]
What does "safe sport" mean for forced migrant athletes? Stories and lessons
for forced migrant athletes resettled in Canada, Final report for the IOC
Olympic Studies Centre Advanced Olympic Research Grant Programme (2022) [
text]
"Young refugees’ experiences of accumulating horizontal and vertical social
capital through organised and informal sports,"
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, OnlineFirst, 6 Dec.
2023 [
open access]
Physical/mental health benefits:
"The (in)significance of footballing pleasures in the lives of forced
migrant men,"
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3 (2022) [
open access]
"Precariousness, Sport Participation and Hope among Young People after
Rejections in the Swedish Asylum Process,"
Nordic Journal of Migration Research, vol. 14, no. 3 (2024) [
open access]
"'They play together, they laugh together': Sport, play and fun in refugee
sport projects,"
Sport in Society, vol. 25, no. 3 (2022) [
open access]
Think Sport. Think Refuge Podcast Series (Olympic Refuge Foundation, 2024)
[
access]
- "Explores sport's role in promoting peace, belonging, and well-being for
refugees."
Uniting the sport and mental health fields to support young people
affected by displacement (Sportanddev.org, June 2024 [
text]
Winning the Game: How Sport for Development supports the psychological
well-being of adolescent refugees (UNICEF, April 2023) [
text]
Resource:
Sport and Development [
access]
- "This page is aimed at organizations currently using, or aiming to use,
sport in their work with refugees, internally displaced people, asylum seekers
and host communities. It provides background information on the subject,
information and links to key resources, as well as guidance and advice on some
of the key considerations when working with displaced people."
