Navigating the in-between: social workers’ perceptions and experiences of facilitating sport for unaccompanied minor refugees in Norway

In Western European countries, sports clubs are positioned as important arenas in the civic integration of newcomers. Yet, in the existing literature on forced migration and sports, there is a notable absence of studies examining the perceptions and experiences of individuals who enact sports and integration policies and programmes. This includes social workers whose responsibility it is to facilitate sport for newly arrived refugees. Considering that these frontline employees are amongst the first individuals to engage with refugees when they arrive in their new country of residence, this presents a notable knowledge gap. In this article, we aim to explore how social workers assess the efficacy of sports in meeting current integration policies, while also exploring how their own experiences shape their facilitation of sports participation among unaccompanied minor refugees. Drawing on Lipsky’s concept of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ we analyse nine social workers’ perceptions and experiences with formal sports clubs and how they seek to promote newcomers’ integration into Norwegian society. The results show that the potential of sports, as described in policy, may not reflect the experiences of the social workers. Moreover, our findings highlight contradictory perceptions and practices amongst the social workers. Their initial responses aligned with a normative functionalist rhetoric of sport being an important arena of integration. Yet, their deeper reflections, based on real-life experiences, identified the lack of actual potential and value of sport for the integration of unaccompanied minor refugees. As such, this article highlights the need to study programme workers’ experiences in sports health promotion.