Sport in Refugee Sites

In <em>Hamdallaye</em>, a refugee site in the capital city of Niger, sport activities take place on regular basis despite discouraging conditions. In cooperation with the Fondazione Milan, the management of the site organises, implements and promotes different sport disciplines and particularly football. In this setting, sport is understood as a therapy, which may help refugees evacuated from Libya to Niger to overcome the traumatic experiences they have endured. This project considers the topic sport and refugees in the setting of refugee sites. The non-European perspective was considered through data gathered during an ethnographic research at the UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Mechanism of Niamey (Niger). The scientific core of this project (Michelini, 2022) focusses on the question ‘What role does sport play in refugee sites?’. The results indicate that refugee sites are complex organisations led by different logics, where power and trust emerge as relevant symbolic media. There, sport is relevant despite of being a leisure activity; is led by multiple meanings, which rely on the logics of the sport, health and education; and reinforces the division of roles between staff and refugees. Thereby, high expectations on sport are sometimes conflated with the need of control of the refugees. Example of the ways sport embodies these different logics are analysed, interpreted, and discussed in concrete situations, which include swimming, taekwondo, and football activities.