Dissertation

International labour migration in english league football

Magee, Jonathan D

1998

Overview

It is well established that modern football originated in Britain and spread around the globe in the wake of political and economic empires. Once established in the peripheral regions of the world, football developed to the extent that South America and Africa became sources of labour for the top professional leagues of Europe. Also, with the break up of the Soviet Union and related national realignments, there have been shifts in the patterns of labour migration in football within Europe itself. In this regard, football must be considered as a multi-faceted and multi-directional process. This study establishes a model for understanding this process and explains it in the context of extensive research carried out with migrant foreign (non-United Kingdom) players in England's professional football league.The research was qualitative and the key methodology used was semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted with overseas players (n=16) from a wide range of nationalities playing in England during season 1995/96. As structured context, the political economy of British, European, and world football, is considered in relation to a model of labour migration. The career contingencies and the lived experiences of overseas players are also considered and interpreted in the context of a typology of football labour migration. This typology establishes different categories of sports labour migrants and develops the model of sports labour migration set out by Maguire (1996). In general, this study of football labour migration offers an insight into the broader issues of world football diffusion and development, globalisation processes, and occupational mobility.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Labor relations