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1 The practice
2 Hints for an evaluation
2.1 Strenghts
It is a truly intercultural project in the sense that the team is made up from people of many different nationalities. The current 5-a-side team is made up of people from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. This can help to calm any inter-ethnic tensions that might exist in cities like Southampton, where many different groups are put together under the Home Office dispersal scheme.
Furthermore apart from brining together the different nationalities it also helps asylum seekers to have contact with native inhabitants from Southampton on an informal level. Contact before, during and after the football games is an especially important way for residents of Southampton to interact in a way which they might not normally be able too. As asylum seekers are not allowed to work there is often little opportunity for ‘natives’ to meet and become friends with them. Football is often touted as the truly ‘international’ sport as it is played almost everywhere in the world and requires very little apparatus to play (only a ball). For this reason people know the rules across the globe and so it is relatively easy to start a game amongst people of different nationalities even if they cannot speak the same language.
It has had a real positive impact on the improving of language skills, as John points out, “The team is made up of Kurds, Afghans, Congolese, Kosovan and Syrians... I think that’s it... it’s really help to improve everybody’s English because they have to communicate with each other.” It is not a dry or boring way to learn the language but lively and, in the middle of an important game, vital that players need to communicate. With this sort of impetus it is far more likely that people will learn the language.
2.2 Critical Points
It might be argued that having a team made up of only asylum seekers and refugees further isolates them from society. However it could equally be argued that the project is more of a stepping stone into mainstream society and without it then the asylum seekers involved in the project might be involved in no social activity.
2.3 Lessons Learnt
Universal themes, such as music or sport can bring people together from many different cultures. The enjoyment of a certain sport is only to a small extent related to culture, as those who play sport enjoy the competition, tactics and physical release no matter what different variations they play. When trying to bring together people from different cultures there are certain themes which though in existence all over the globe and so can unite people also have interesting cultural variation.
A labour migrant to Britain from Eastern Europe, now returned, described his favourite moment as “this time when me and my friend were kicking a ball around in the park and there were a group of Albanian asylum seekers. They didn’t really speak English but we started having a game with them. Then a group of Pakistan guys walked past so we invited them in. Some English guys soon joined in and suddenly there were loads of us playing on a full sized pitch, everyone speaking different languages but we all understood each other. Being England it started to rain but nobody minded and we played for ages. It makes you realize how universal football is.”
Football can really bring people together. When playing in a team, similar to working in a team in a job, there develops a natural ‘gel’ between people as they begin to look after and defend one another from the opposing team. It is also a way for men, especially as lots of young men come to Britain as asylum seekers and refugees, to work off all of the excess energy which they build up. Especially in cases where they are not allowed to work it is important that the energy is put to a productive rather than a negative use.
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