Sports Bodies Urged to Consider Needs of Migrants
Sports codes should consider the needs of migrants if they want to attract players and supporters, says a new report by sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley.
Women's sports,
such as netball and hockey, need to recognise the cultural
requirements of Muslim women in their dress codes if they
are to benefit from the growth in immigration from
non-traditional sources.
In a report entitled Sport
and Cultural Diversity; Responding to the Sports and Leisure
Needs of Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in Auckland,
commissioned by the Auckland Regional Physical Activity and
Sport Trust, Professor Spoonley raises a series of issues
sports organisations need to consider as the migrant
population of greater Auckland reaches 40 per cent of the
total.
Some sports, such as table tennis and
badminton, have gained players and support from the
increased cultural diversity while others, such as rugby and
netball, have been less responsive to the new
demographics.
"Some sports have gained new membership,
coaching and sponsors without having to do very much. Others
have actively sought to change what they do in order to
accommodate these new members of their sporting community,"
he says. "At the other end of the spectrum are some sports
which have yet to appeal to some of these ethnic and migrant
groups.
"Some are reluctant and a few even hostile to
expanding what they do to include ethnic and immigrant
communities."
Until the late 1980s, the bulk of New
Zealand's migrants came from Britain, Ireland and the
Pacific. In the past two decades there has been an influx of
immigrants from Asia and South Africa, with smaller numbers
from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern
Europe.
Professor Spoonley spoke to a wide range of
sports to find out what they are doing to meet the needs of
the migrant community.
He also interviewed people from
different ethnic groups, and discovered they had created not
only their own teams but in some cases their own clubs.
These include little-known games and sports brought from
their homelands, such as the Korean Ssireum, a traditional
form of wrestling. Others have set up separate clubs, such
as the New Zealand Chinese Table Tennis Association, which
has 750 members, and organises social gatherings around
important dates in the Chinese calendar.
The Korean
Sports Society provides information in Korean language on
skiing and snowboarding, bowling, hunting, tae kwon do,
soccer, basketball and golf. Muslim women have set up the
Muslimah Sports Organisation to promote women-only netball,
volleyball and swimming for Muslim girls reluctant to join a
New Zealand code because they are required to have short
skirts and bare arms.
"The bottom line is that
super-diversity is here to stay and should become part of
the strategic and delivery mechanisms of any Auckland-based
organisation, sporting or otherwise," says Professor
Spoonley.
Trust chairman Colin Dale says the region's
local authorities and sports bodies wanted to know how to
respond to the changing leisure and sports needs of their
communities. "There are many social, health and well-being
benefits for individuals and communities from active
participation in sport and recreation," Mr Dale
says.
ENDS