Exploring Social Inclusion of Female Immigrants Through Cricket in the South of Sweden

Abstract: This study examines the female immigrants' experiences regarding participation in cricket in their homeland and Sweden. It contains two sections: the first part aims to assess the perceived opportunities, barriers, and challenges of playing cricket in the participants’ homeland and Sweden, and the second part focuses on the impact of playing cricket on their lives, particularly social inclusion in their new societies. Bourdieu’s theory of practices, Putnam's social capital theory, and Self-Determination theory are used as analytical tools to explore the participant's sports involvement in their homeland and host country, how playing cricket in Sweden helps them to accumulate social capital, and their psychological need regarding motivating them to engage in cricket, respectively. This study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven (07) female immigrants, aged 20-40 years, who play cricket in Sweden. The findings indicate that females with an immigrant background had experiences playing sports in their homeland, but socio-cultural, religious, and gender-related challenges and limited opportunities hindered continuity in their later lives. However, after migrating to Sweden, they rediscovered themselves to engage in cricket in a supportive environment where they faced some challenges mainly related to facilities and getting more female members as cricket is not a native sport of Sweden. They also mentioned that they do not gain any financial assistance for playing cricket in Sweden. It is evident from the study that participants have no language barriers in their team as everybody speaks English. However, participants appreciate the facilities they get from the club, such as practice matches, coaching and resources, and funding from SCF for the female development camp and Premiere League. Despite the lack of financial assistance for playing, participants are motivated to invest money, effort, and time for the positive outcome of cricket, including physical fitness, mental well-being, personal growth, social connection, and a sense of belonging.