Immigration, Integration, and Intersectoral Partnership: A Critical Examination of Introductory Winter Sport Programmes for Newcomers to Canada
Date
2022-07-14
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Sport participation is popularly constructed as a key aspect of integration for newcomers into their new countries of residence. These claims, however, are critiqued by sport and migration researchers. While newcomer sport participation is receiving increasing scholarly interest, lived experiences of newcomers in introductory winter sport programmes and the (in)efficacy of such programmes remains underexplored. Winter sports hold a central place within Canadian culture and identity, making the intersection between winter sport, immigration, integration, and Canadian identity a timely topic of investigation. I approached this research from a relativist ontological as well as interpretivist and social constructionist epistemological perspectives. The overarching purpose was to explore the realities of designing and implementing introductory winter sport programmes as well as the lived experiences of newcomer participants. First, six Canadian Intro to Sport programmes involving newcomers were examined using an interpretivist, qualitative research design. Results from this study were incorporated into designing the WinSport Newcomers Programme (WNP), an intersectoral community partnership comprising sport administrators, settlement service practitioners from three separate organizations, and me. I adopted a qualitative case study research design to explore the lived experiences of WNP participants and their parents as well as the (in)efficacy of the WNP as an intersectoral community partnership. Results illuminated the value of winter sport participation for newcomers to Canada as well as various challenges facing the sustainability of newcomer winter sport participation. The WNP represents a maturing intersectoral community partnership that has excelled at introducing newcomers to Canadian winter sports. Yet, various weaknesses (e.g., collaborators negotiating job-related time pressures) are obstructing the collaboration’s effectiveness. Together, the results critique and identify shortcomings in newcomer introductory winter sport programmes, while also offering important insights into how newcomer introductory winter sport programmes may be designed to foster positive outcomes.
Description
Keywords
immigration, integration, winter sport, Canada, Canadian identity, qualitative research, inclusion, multiculturalism, race and ethnicity
Citation
Barrick, S. J. (2022). Immigration, Integration, and Intersectoral Partnership: A Critical Examination of Introductory Winter Sport Programmes for Newcomers to Canada (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.