Local Youth, Global Futures. Experiences, Aspirations and Citizenship of Young Cricketers of Migrant Origin in Italy
Local Youth, Global Futures. Experiences, Aspirations and Citizenship of Young Cricketers of Migrant Origin in Italy

Summary/Abstract: This contribution discusses the relationship between sport and citizenship by exploring the citizenship paths described by young cricketers of Bangladeshi origin living in Venice (Italy). In particular, it focuses on the processes of misrecognition, enacted both by natives and their older countrymen, that these youths are suffering in their everyday life and that are rooted and reflected in their playing cricket in the neighbourhood. Starting from these premises, their aspired citizenship paths are described, revealing how the European passport, often an aspiration in itself, may become a passe-partout to react to misrecognition, allowing them to describe aspirations, reflected also in their sports practices, that are nationally, transnationally and globally deployed and that may aim, although through an individual claim, to restore the disruptions lived by the whole Bangladeshi diaspora. In this sense, within their distinctive aspired citizenship paths, the borders between distinction/integration with their older countrymen and native people are blurred, thus revealing their willingness to enjoy the same rights as their native peers as well as to overcome the differential inclusion suffered by their parents.

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