Sport as a Means of Integrating Minority Women

There has been a development in Europe during recent years in which some countries have startcd to use sport as a means for the integration of minority youth.’ The integration qualities of sport are recognized by the Council of Europe which works for ‘promoting sport for all as a mean of improving the quality of life, facilitating social integration and contributing to social cohesion, particular among young people’.2 Even though the official sport policies in European countries are based on the idea that sport is a social activity that can be used to foster social integration among minorities, there seeins to be contradicting opinions among researchers on whether sport participation has this effect.’ The purpose of this essay is to give an overview of, and to discuss rcsearch from different European countries that illuminate this question. The sport and integration work in western European countries is based on the idea that there is a link between civil society and democracy and the sport associations are thought to be ~niiii-deinocracies. To participate in these organizations is therefore thought to be a lesson in democracy. It is argued that immigrants can learn the majority group’s valucs and norms easily by participation in sport which is exemplified by fair play and dcinocratic values.4 In addition, sport is often described as an open and inclusive activity, where youths can develop a network of friends with similar intcrests.‘ Based on the idea that sport participation can lead to integration, different sport projects have been implemented throughout Western Europe6 However, after some of the first experiences from diverse sport and integration projects in Norway, it was concluded that the projects did not succeed in reaching minority women. Women with minority backgrounds were badly underrepresented in these projects.’ These experiences led the district sport federations in the major cities in Norway to initiate special projects for minority women that were thought to be more in accordance with minority women’s cultural background. An example of this is gendersegregated aerobics for Muslim women. The initiation of special projects was met with resistance from local sport clubs, which thought that these