Renegotiating the Biopolitics of Physical Activities among Ethnic Minority Groups in the Netherlands

Research on physical activities among religious and minority ethnic groups in Europe often focuses on classical public health issues or how to ‘empower’, and ‘equip’ people to stay healthy as well as integrated. In producing healthy citizens, bodies have been disciplined and are attuned to dominant discourses regarding religion, race, minority ethnic groups, and their health practices. This paper aims to show how minority ethnic groups, through physical activities, pursue their wellbeing beyond matters of integration and physical health. With a focus on participants from the predominantly Muslim Somali-Dutch and Christian Ghanaian-Dutch communities in the Netherlands, I argue from a biopolitical lens that physical activities are used by state institutions to ‘produce’ bodies in particular ways that are meaningful to the state. However, the demands of the state on ethnic minority groups often leads to the racialisation of bodies. Compliance with and resistance to disciplinary mechanisms emerge around understanding and engaging in physical activities. Thus, people adopt creative ways to incorporate physical activities into their daily routines, considering their migration situation and living conditions to address or negotiate issues of sociality, intimacy, and morality. This paper, therefore, shows how engaging in physical activities enables the embodiment of different forms of sociality, experience, and aesthetics that are important in the pursuit of wellbeing, especially when dealing with racisms.