Social Cohesion Reduced to Social Ties? Sport, Leisure, and the Limits of Migrant Inclusion in Spain

The paper presents the findings of SCORE (Sporting Cities Opposing Racism in Europe), a collaborative scientific programme funded by the European Commission, conducted over a two-year period (2022–2024). This project brought together several European cities, universities, and local organisations with the objective of fostering migrant integration and preventing racism and discrimination in sports. The research programme involved the analysis of methodologies and strategies at local level ( N = 169). In this article, we analyse the Spanish case (N = 52), which presents a greater diversity of initiatives. As relatively recent country of immigration, Spain has not yet established a common national integration model (Cebolla Boado & González Ferrer, 2013). To examine sports programmes and their underlying philosophies, we applied the conceptual framework of social cohesion (Schiefer & van der Noll, 2017) adapted to sport and leisure (Moustakas, 2024). Specifically, we investigated how social relations, connectedness, and focus on the common good are reflected in both political narratives and the methodologies of sports programmes. Findings indicate that social relations are a key priority in sports programmes, particularly for fostering strong, resilient social networks and trust among migrants and local population. However, civic participation and the sense of local identification are less prominent. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the policy objectives of sports programmes with recent literature (Cheddadi, 2021; Puech, Le Yondre & Freedman, 2023; Örsoğlu & Yildiran, 2024). Additionally, the specificity of the Spanish case –particularly in terms of the importance of supranational structures in legitimizing local strategies– is examined through a critical lens (Swain and Urban, 2024).