Electoral Chair’s Seminar – 6 December

The Football Effect: Comparing anti-immigrant attitudes between fans and non-fans 

Daniel Stockemer – University of Ottawa

In times of “polycrisis”, immigration is a salient issue in many European countries, which large segment of the population being critical toward immigrants. Based on theories of identity formation through habitualisation, we posit that football fandom – a ubiquitous, emotional, strongly international activity in everyday life – holds unique potential for reducing citizens’ prejudice toward immigrants. Football fandom provides habitual contact, interaction, and experiences with players from all over the world, shaping fans’ attitudes toward immigrants. We use new representative survey data from four European countries (Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain) to examine the relationship between football fandom and various dimensions anti-immigrant attitudes. The results largely support our hypotheses, demonstrating that football fans exhibit more positive attitudes toward immigrants than non-fans. 

This content has been updated on 29 November 2023 at 13 h 12 min.