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Description
The purpose of the paper is to analyze immigrants' sports participation in Denmark. Inspired by ethnicity theory, marginality theory and assimilation theory we analyze the significance of different factors – ethnic background, socioeconomic position, and access to sports opportunities - for participation in different types of sport and under different forms of organization. The data basis for the analysis is a large survey from 2020 of movement habits in Denmark, answered by 163,133 adults of which 8 pct. has an immigrant background. The questionnaire included questions about participation in almost 100 different sports and movement activities regarding the frequency of participation, the organization of the activity, motives etc. The respondent's answer to the questionnaire is linked to information from Statistic Denmark about the individual's immigrant background, and socio-economic position, etc., as well as data for the relative number of sports facilities, sports clubs etc. in the municipality where the individual respondent lives. The multilevel logistic regression analyzes show that both the ethnic background and the socio-economic position are of great importance for both the proportion who practice sports and how sports are practiced (types of sports and organizational forms) while the opportunities for doing sports (eg access to facilities) are less important. Based on the analysis, we discuss whether the Danish policy pursued to promote immigrants' participation in sports – focusing on assimilation to dominant sports and organizational forms (sports clubs) in Denmark and the establishment of sports facilities in residential areas with many immigrants - has been a mistake.
