Refugee soccer teams: a good idea?

Here is a story from Baltimore about a group of Iraqi boys forming a soccer team, but with no one to compete against.   The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is going to help start an all-refugee league.   I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not. 

Read the article in the Baltimore Sun.  Note that at least one boy had a tough transition to America when he was beaten up on the way to school, but says he is happy now to be in Baltimore.

Six months later, Mazen was mugged behind Patterson High. He says he was walking to the bus stop with his brother and three friends when five boys, all fellow students, came upon them. Without a word, one punched Mazen in the nose, knocking him to the ground. Then they kicked Mazen in the face. He, his friends and their parents wonder if he was targeted because of his nationality.

School officials were concerned enough to ask the Mayor’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs for a meeting, said its director, Renee Samuels. Meanwhile, Mazen and Marwan switched to a new school, as did Rawan. Today Mazen says he’s fully recovered and happy to be in Baltimore.

The boys are happy playing soccer and happy that  the IRC is starting a league.

The Tigers would be charter members of an all-refugee league. The plan was to find boys (and girls) to play on teams representing groups with sizable numbers in Baltimore, including Nepali, Burmese and Meskhetian Turks from the former Soviet Union.

Some details would have to be worked out, such as how often the teams would play. And if the IRC couldn’t find $300 per team for uniforms, it agreed to help with fundraisers.

I really don’t know the answer to my question. My first thought is that such an initiative further separates immigrants by nationality and keeps them from being part of their communities, just as those Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs) do that I have written so critically about, here.   The IRC is a big promoter of ECBO’s.  Note that this group of boys uses Arabic to communicate on their team. 

I have a son who is an immigrant and a good soccer player and he was able to find highly competitive American teams on which to participate, and I think it was good for him and for his teammates.   Also, I don’t know if this is accurate that everyone plays baseball in Baltimore.  Maryland is a big soccer state and although we live in western Maryland we traveled to the Baltimore area to play.

Readers, what do you think?

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