This summer is a back-to-back sports frenzy in my household. It started with the T20 Cricket World Cup, followed closely by two major soccer tournaments: the UEFA European Championship and Copa America, which will both conclude this coming weekend. Then later this month, the Paris 2024 Olympics will start (which we will be attending in person). One unexpected story that has continually taken center stage in these competitions is the role of immigration in the shape of many of the teams and the audiences watching the competitions.
At the T20 Cricket World Cup, the U.S. National men’s team that managed a victory against the powerhouse Pakistan national team was composed of a “melting pot of players” born in India, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa. For the Copa America, hosted by the US for the second time, much of the audience both live and on television is shaped by immigrant communities and the Canadian team which made a surprising run to the Semifinals is led by a star player who is also a refugee and human rights advocate himself.
In the 2024 Euro Cup, the English team that just made the finals is so overwhelmingly comprised of players from immigrant communities that the UK-based Migration Museum launched a campaign to illustrate what the England soccer team would look like without immigration … only three players would remain.
In many ways, sports is offering the perfect counter argument to the media that demonizes immigrant communities or suggests that those who come to a new country as immigrants don’t actively contribute to their chosen home. On the world’s biggest sports stages, immigrants are teammates and much of a country’s success on the pitch or field wouldn’t be possible without them.
