La inmigración: potencialidad y eficacia del deporte como instrumento de integración social

Abstract

The unstoppable flow of people from different backgrounds, arriving in many European countries, makes the management of social change difficult to analyse. It is not only the numbers that are worrying, but also the socio-cultural aspects that accompany each migrant who, while being a 'resource', represents at the same time a 'challenge' for governments. Immigration is not a one-way trip, because it inexorably generates relationships and exchanges, in which everyone must be able to contribute to defining their own identity. Through the lens of sport, the question arises as to whether sport can serve as a tool for the social integration of immigrants, without subjecting them to a 'forced process' of integration and the natives to the 'compulsory' integration into the social fabric. The term 'integration', referring to the insertion of immigrants into receiving societies, in fact gives rise to much discussion and interpretation, creating quite a few confusions. It is therefore necessary to distinguish, firstly, between the dimension of integration as a social process, which takes place 'from below', so to speak, and that of immigrant integration as a conscious objective of a set of policies, pursued 'from above', because it is related to governments and thus to the integration policies pursued. Policies obviously affect integration processes, but these are influenced by various factors, school, work, education systems, and the commitment of local authorities to combat forms of xenophobia. In general, sport can be considered a valid vehicle for inclusion and aggregation, because it has enormous potential to educate and train each individual to live an honest and fair life. Moreover, it represents a unique learning scenario as it tempers differences of age, gender, ethnicity and status to make way for those skills, which facilitate dialogue with others. With a universal language, it fosters civil coexistence and enables the achievement of unexpressed capacities. More and more often, it is used as a vector of integration for foreign populations, in all countries of immigration. Sporting activity, whatever it may be, goes beyond the playing field, as it is not just sweat in the gym, but is more, much more, it has to do with the sphere of education of the individual and his health, it has to do with the transmission of values and with the system of rights and duties. Complex concepts such as integration, immigration and sport are increasingly being challenged by the social sciences to better understand the society we live in, which is often difficult to figure out. As will be noted in the conclusions, integration is a complex subject, even in Sicily, notoriously a land of passage and...