Sport organisations’ contribution to migrants' social inclusion in Italy: a sociological insight

The extensive involvement of Italian sport organisations in delivering various social and humanitarian services and activities to migrants, along with the peculiarity of the country, offered the ground to the conceptualisation of this paper. This study aims to discuss the contributions of sport to migrants’ social inclusion through a review of the pertinent literature and the use of a Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) to examine a group of projects and interventions carried out in Italy. In Italy, the third sector, and in particular, sport for all organisations, develop several initiatives to respond to the heterogeneous needs of the migrants, including educational and communication campaigns, research activities and direct participation of migrants in sport events and tournaments. Our study highlights the importance of overcoming the lack of homogeneity in those projects and interventions with common and shared strategies, and the importance of educating and training coaches and other professionals for working in these contexts. The findings also led us to propose a conceptual framework with the critical areas of intervention for research and sport-based projects: social inclusion, settlement, positive development and social capital.