In 2024 the number of forcibly displaced people in the world amounts to more than 120 million (including 43.4 million refugees, the highest number ever recorded (UNHCR, 2024). This social phenomenon has been a constant increase during the history of humanity, and continues to play a key role in the development and transformation of societies.

In a world in process of constant mobility and human displacement, cities, municipalities and urban environments facing complex and diverse challenges of forced displacement, as it is to move towards a greater and better inclusion of refugees in their host communities. In that sense, the sport and in particular football, has established itself as a powerful tool to promote social inclusion and combat discrimination.  

This is a reality that the organization Fútbol Más, from its birth in Chile in 2008, has been able to experience in different contexts and countries, accompanying children, girls and young people to find a safe space, focused on their well-being and personal development, emotional and social. This article explores how sport can transform in a positive way the lives of displaced people and refugees in urban contexts, and how they can combat the discrimination, through sports programs that promote the cohesion and mutual respect.

For refugees and internally displaced people, especially in urban environments, access to sporting activities can be a form of effective inclusion. Through programs such as those running the Fútbol Más, we create spaces where diversity is celebrated and people can find a sense of belonging. That said, it is worth asking How can the sport to support the inclusion of refugees and displaced persons in urban environments?

Approach and experiences of Fútbol Más in the inclusion of refugees and displaced persons, to combat discrimination.

The speeches and discriminatory actions translate into significant barriers to promote inclusive actions from the host communities. In this context, the sport can play a crucial role in the construction of societies that are more inclusive and respectful. Fútbol Más tackles these challenges through the creation of spaces where all people, regardless of their origin or background, can share a common experience and strengthen values such as respect and teamwork. To do this, it is important to develop methodologies, and specific activities that enable people to feel part of the host community. Within the learning identified by the experience of Fútbol ás it highlights the use of methodologies to work the sense of belonging through rites. The practice, he has failed to see that the sport connects communities under one and the same sense, where the symbols, the celebration of a goal and the rules constructed in conjunction, favour the power to knock down social stereotypes that affect the possibilities of inclusion.

Fútbol Más, in particular, uses a Green Card, a pedagogical tool that reinforces behaviors, pro-social, rather than punishing negative behaviors. This methodology helps to create an environment that is positive, inclusive and free of discrimination, where the focus is on the strengths and skills that every child is growing and developing in your process. This tool has become the universal language in different contexts of intervention with refugees and internally displaced people, where many times there is the challenge of working with different languages or cultural patterns.

One of the Fútbol Más countries presents major challenges in the work with refugees and displaced persons corresponds to France, territory that –currently– received 13.8% of asylum requests that arrive to the European Union (European Union, 2024). According to statistics from UNHCR in 2023, the refugees are mainly from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Syria, while the asylum seekers are mainly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Turkey.

Among the most significant experiences developed by Fútbol Más in relation to this topic are found “Terrains d'avenir”, the flagship programme of Football in France, which was developed in collaboration with a consortium with PLAY International, Kabubu, Ovale Citoyen, Emmaüs Solidarité and the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, and had the support of the Foundation of the Olympic Refugee.

The program was targeted to young refugees and internally displaced persons (between 10 and 24 years of age) in the region of Île-de-France, from –mostly– of sub-saharan Africa: Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, counting also with the young people of Afghanistan as the country of origin. The aim of the project was to help young refugees and asylum seekers to find a sense of belonging and to undertake a way of life positive through sport. He was also focused on improving your well-being and to facilitate their inclusion of both social and professional.

Well, one of the fundamental pillars of the program was the training of young leaders, who participated in training opportunities and skills development in skills sociodeportivas, and had the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice, supporting Fútbol Más coaches in the implementation of sessions, which reinforced their learning. In addition, to conclude the training, we carried out a visit to the stadium parc des Princes as a reward, to strengthen the sense of belonging among young leaders. This training enabled them to acquire useful skills for their personal development, and occupational in the field of sport. Another of the activities developed by the “Terrains d'avenir” corresponds to the recreational outings and socio-educational in urban environments, with a focus on strengthening the sense of belonging of young people participating in the host community. Highlights in addition to the assistance of young refugees as spectators of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, an initiative that managed to bring them closer to a protected area, accompanied pairing and positive, making them feel part of a sporting event of global importance and value in cross section, showing that sport unites regardless of culture, nationality or language. In addition, we generated spaces linkage to practice the French, major element when we associate the inclusion of elements language and communication.

Without a doubt, the experiences of the interventions sociodeportivas that Fútbol Más has developed with a population of refugee and displaced populations has left many lessons that are presented as opportunities for growth. On the one hand, there was the challenge of establishing relationships to create inclusive communities despite the language barriers, cultural and transit times of displaced persons in the contexts of intervention.

On the other hand, are identified difficulties of working with host communities who often present various stereotypes that are detrimental to refugees and displaced persons, so that the experiential learning has positioned itself to strategies for raising awareness in urban contexts, as a fundamental axis for the construction of more inclusive societies.

In that same order, it becomes essential to have a structural network of support and partnerships –public and private– to promote the inclusion in urban contexts. This facilitates the breadth of opportunities for participation in community spaces for refugees. These alliances with strategic partners, not only involve action at the organizational level, but also of local actors, through specific actions of leadership and capacity development. In this last line, it is important to generate strategies for the development of interventions –especially with young people– and adult- focused on training for working life and/or the projection of life, fostering the inclusion in the occupational setting.

Finally, Football holds profound conviction that the sport is much more than a physical activity: it is a space of encounter, of mutual recognition and of social transformation. As a vehicle for inclusion, and the tools to confront the discrimination, the sport has the ability to build bridges where others build borders. In a global scenario marked by human mobility and the multiple forms of exclusion that this can bring, it becomes essential that sports practices are set and to respond to the particularities of each context. Only thus will it be possible to guarantee that all people —regardless of their origin, nationality or place of residence— are able to exercise their right to grow, play and develop in conditions of equality. Bet on inclusive sport is, in essence, betting on communities, fairer, more caring and human.

References:

1. UNHCR, 2023
2. UNHCR, 2024
3. European Union, 2024

Biography of the authors:

Katherine Hormazábal: Coordinator of the International Methodology of Fútbol Más. Social Worker, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile. Master's degree in Legal and Social Protection of Vulnerable Groups and Persons from the University of Cádiz, Spain.

Sebastian Pellicer: Coordinator of Information Management, Fútbol Más, Sociologist, Catholic University of Santiago, Chile.

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