People displaced from their home countries remain one of the biggest problems facing humanity today.  It’s estimated that there are around 26 million refugees globally who have been uprooted due to various crises, including drought, civil war, and political persecution.

As numbers increase, attitudes towards refugees are often hardening in many countries, with people (erroneously) regarding refugees as a security threat.  As such, many believe their activities should be heavily curtailed if granted asylum.

New research from the MIT Governance Lab illustrates how sport can shift opinions about such refugees.  The authors argue that a win by the national soccer team can invoke feelings of nationalism among supporters, which is often accompanied by animosity towards foreigners.  They also highlight, however, how the right messaging can not only dampen this nationalism but even encourage more positive feelings towards foreigners, and especially refugees.

Attitudes towards refugees

The researchers argue that most research to date on our attitude towards refugees has focused on developed countries.  This is despite the fact that around 85% of refugees are actually in developing countries.  As such, they believe that it’s vital that we better understand how people think in those areas.

The focus of the research was a game between Kenya and Tanzania in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.  The researchers utilized an online panel survey to gauge attitudes towards refugees among the spectators from the two nations.

The results reveal that among the victorious Kenyans, there was a noticeable increase in animosity towards refugees, in relation to their Tanzanian peers.  Some of the participants were exposed, however, to a message that highlighted the diversity of the tournament.  For the Kenyans who saw this message, their attitude towards refugees actually improved.

The researchers believe that their findings illustrate how our attitudes towards refugees are not fixed but can be moulded with the right messaging, especially if utilizing significant events, such as soccer tournaments.

“If people in this space recognize that there are these natural reactions that people have to sporting events, thinking about the ways that one might re-frame or talk about these things is important,” they say. “It’s something these other actors could use in the future in terms of how they talk about these events on TV and in the news.”

Dampening nationalism

The researchers chose Tanzania and Kenya in large part because of the significant refugee populations in both countries.  Indeed, in 2015 alone, Tanzania received around 400,000 people fleeing from Burundi.  Similarly, Kenya hosts around 500,000 refugees, many of whom are from war-torn Somalia.

That a certain kind of messaging was able to dampen any harmful consequences of nationalism is positive, albeit the researchers found that the impact was relatively short-lived.

“I think it’s actually surprising that we see these effects lasting for three days,” they explain. “It may sound short, but in the context of a pretty weak treatment—messages in an online survey—that’s pretty powerful.”

The impact was especially significant as there weren’t any refugees playing for either team and refugees were not directly referenced in the messages sent to any of the volunteers.  They hope that it might provide a way ahead for policymakers as they look to improve relations between refugees and their host country.

“What’s really cool is this is just a simple framing around thinking about the game as an opportunity for inclusivity and to celebrate diversity,” they conclude. “These [soccer games] are heightened times. Even if we can’t change minds in the long term, if we can change them for a little while during a heightened period, that’s still important.”