Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Uluslararası Göç Kongresi ICOMIR 2021-International Migration Researches Congress, Ankara, Türkiye, 20 - 22 Mayıs 2021, ss.90
Football Labor Migrations in Turkey
Abstract
Research conducted on sports in the last thirty years, which is one of the striking areas of international labor migration, indicates that global sports labor migration in all amateur-professional branches is correlated with the capitalist political economic system. Turkey, after initiating the process of articulating into the global capitalist system after the 1980s, has now become one of the target destinations for many players in terms of international athletes’ migration, especially from African countries, including its amateur football clubs. In this report, it is aimed to understand and explain the reasons why Turkey is a preferred country in sports labor migration and the experiences of athletes in the migration processes. In the study, descriptive analysis was conducted on data using literature discussion, newspapers and official web pages of football clubs. Additionally, the primary data obtained from the field research carried out by the researcher with four immigrant athletes in 2009 using the “life history” technique were included in the scope of “experiences of immigrant athletes”. In conclusion, it is revealed that sports labor migrations are not independent from economic political processes and immigration in amateur football is a more “insecure” status.
Keywords: Migration, Labor, Sports, Football player, Turkey