Soccer as space of belonging: Amateur soccer teams of Latin American migrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo

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The research project examines the emergence of spaces of belonging in the context of migration and amateur soccer. It is based on an ethnographic field study on amateur soccer teams of Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Special attention is paid to the gender-specific differences between male and female amateur soccer teams. Here, the social significance of soccer as an everyday transcultural practice will be analyzed: both as a means of integration of migrants into the host society as well as to maintain or redesign cultural belongings of migrants. The development of belonging is understood as the appropriation of space through everyday activities - in this case, amateur soccer. It is assumed that within these spaces of belonging, transcultural and gender appropriation processes play an important role, as the cultural constructions of gender through power relations become visible in transcultural spaces in a special way. The central research question is: Which transcultural and gender appropriation strategies do migrant amateur soccer players use for the development of spaces of belonging?The foundation of migrant amateur soccer teams is a wide-spread phenomenon in many cities around the world: Latin American migrants establish soccer clubs not only in Brazil, but also in European cities such as Madrid, Berlin and Paris. For migrants, soccer is an important space for cultural and community coming together, that expresses the belonging to the same home country, region or even locality. At the same time however, the appropriation of space for the sport is significant as a transcultural strategy: as amateur soccer is a widespread and popular sport in Brazil, the migrants thus integrate into Brazilian everyday culture and express their belonging to the host country.The project contributes to a body of research that understands soccer as a significant space of interaction, where social, cultural and gender differences are negotiated. In particular, the transcultural significance of soccer as a space of belonging in migrants' everyday life is emphasized; an issue which has found little attention in the cultural and social science research so far. At the same time the project contributes to research on recent south-south migratory flows in Latin America; especially by Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants to Brazil, which is also a little-noticed research field.