Using sport migration as a passport to economic freedom

Abstract

This research project studies why athletic migrants migrate from their home country. Issues related to this topic include which country do they choose to move to, and how they manage to settle down and who helped them in the process. A total of twenty nine indepth interviews were carried out. Twenty one of these were football players with three of these being female football players. Eight of the total twenty nine participants were basketball players, of which five were female basketball players. Some of the participants were foreign athletes that migrated to Malta while other interviewees were Maltese athletes that migrated to foreign countries. Qualitative methodology was used for this research. Semi structured in-depth face-toface interviews were carried out with the athletes who were in Malta, and online ones with those who were abroad. Each interview was recorded and later transcribed. A phenomenological approach was used to see how the participants made sense of their migratory experience. From the analysis of the data it became clear that younger and older athletes migrate for different purposes. Younger athletes migrate to pursue their dreams of playing professionally abroad, to earn more money and/or to find who they are. On the other hand, older athletes migrate to keep earning money from sports, even if it means going to play at lower levels. At the same time, older athletes migrate to countries which enable them to play and to raise a family. Gender also played a part in migration patterns. Male athletes have more opportunities to migrate than female athletes and one reason for this is that much more money is offered to male athletes rather than female athletes. This would result in females opting for a different career outside sports.