‘The power of the badge’? Interrogating sport as a vehicle for social integration of migrants in England and Hungary

Given the growing impact of right-wing, anti-immigration political actors in various geographic contexts, this research critically examines the structural conditions shaping sport-based integration initiatives for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants in England and Hungary; two countries characterised by increasingly hostile political landscapes towards immigrants. Drawing on original observations of sport inclusion programmes and in-depth semi-structured interviews with charity delivery staff, the study investigates how prevailing political and sociocultural attitudes towards migration shape the possibilities and limits of such initiatives. Our use of a Bourdieusian theoretical framework is deployed to examine how sport can simultaneously operate as a mechanism of inclusion, fostering integration and social connection, and exclusion, reinforcing boundaries of nationhood and belonging. By examining the perceptions of programme delivery staff in hostile socio-political environments, we offer novel insights into the structural constraints on sport-based integration work and the strategies through which practitioners negotiate symbolic violence, precarious funding, and anti-immigration discourse in both national contexts.