Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Sports have contributed to integration, assimilation and identity formation. It is an activity where people of all cultures participate in as professionals and as spectators. Migration as a term has undergone massive connotative transformations in the past century. There has been literature in abundance about massive migration, its impact on migrants and cultural mingling, hybridity. It can also be described as a process of structuring the shared identities and making a new subjectivity. There has been migration of players in 21st century from African countries to Europe in football leagues. Sports as a pattern of exchange and cross- border relations operate as medium through which sentiments of migrants circulate. It can then be said as a construct of New Identities and talks of larger question of polity, inclusion, social mobilization. The present article examines how young Hybrid Asians experience and articulate recent transformations in popular notions of “race,” nation, identity and culture. There would be analysis of migrant Asian players, which act as a prominent arena representing the intricacies of national and international connections. This paper questions the function of sports in inclusion, integration and formation of new identity and what role the migrant players play in creating new home spaces?