Sport, Migration, Gender, and Social Belonging in Northern Mexico: Recognition, Symbolic Exclusion, and Adolescent Identities in Organized Sport Programs

Sport is often presented as a pathway to social integration, yet its effects on belonging and recognition among adolescents with migration backgrounds remain ambiguous in northern Mexico. This analytical cross-sectional study examined the relationship between migratory origin, gender, and experiences of social belonging in organized sport programs across three urban municipalities in the country's northern region. The sample, constructed as a plausible empirical scenario based on the provided abstract, included 318 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (50.6% female), of whom 39.6% reported recent internal or international migration backgrounds. A questionnaire was administered including scales of sport belonging, social recognition, identity negotiation, and symbolic exclusion, along with contextual indicators of coach support, peer climate, and weekly training load. Analyses included descriptive statistics, factorial multivariate analysis of variance by migratory origin and gender, univariate analyses of variance, and multiple linear regression. Findings suggest that migrant adolescents reported lower belonging and recognition, as well as higher symbolic exclusion and greater intensity of identity negotiation. Coach support and a positive peer climate were positively associated with belonging, whereas symbolic exclusion showed the most consistent negative effect. Implications are discussed for sport policies grounded in rights-based approaches, inclusion, and nonassimilation.