Precariousness, Sport Participation and Hope Among Young People After Rejections in the Swedish Asylum Process

This article analyses the complex role of hope in relation to sport in the constrained lives of boys and young men who have experienced the Swedish asylum process. The data derives from an ethnographical longitudinal project on the social dimensions of hope in the asylum process. The project is situated in the context of escalating austerity politics and restrictions on asylum law and policy following the increased numbers of people seeking asylum in Sweden and other European countries in 2015. Through ethnographic cases, we expose how political decisions on national and supranational levels, amplified by economic structures, have put research participants in extremely precarious positions, affecting every aspect of their daily lives, including their sports life and ability to hope. Our analysis focuses on how sports may provide moments of realisation that generate distraction and an optimistic future orientation. Sports can also become everyday acts of resistance and manifestations of radical hope, opposing structural constraints. However, our research suggests that long-term, uncertain waiting coupled with neo-liberal labour exploitation creates situations where time and energy are taken over by external control, leading to an inability to maintain hope and experience sports as meaningful.