Outdoors, Events and Social Integration

During recent years integration of immigrants has become an urgent issue across Sweden, and is one of the main strategic targets for several municipalities. Given the importance of outdoor recreation and events for the Swedish society it can be assumed that engaging in these activities is important for social integration.

International and national experience point to the strong potential of sports, recreation and outdoor events for a number of benefits, including social integration. There is a long tradition of research and accumulation of longitudinal data on trends on outdoor recreation and events in Sweden, however involvement of immigrants in outdoor recreation and events has not received sufficient research attention and has largely remained a ‘blind spot’. A recent master thesis at Mid Sweden University indicates that citizens of immigrant background might face a number of barriers on the way to engage in outdoor recreation and events and more research is needed to support both participants and event organizers in this process.

The aim of this project - "Supporting Social Integration of Immigrants through Engagement in Outdoor Recreation and Events" - is to understand how outdoor recreation and events can be used as drivers for social integration of immigrants in Östersund. This is achieved through the following objectives:

• To gain comprehensive understanding of the current status of migrant engagement in outdoor recreation, sport and special events in Östersund.
• To understand barriers to engage in, and benefits of outdoor recreation and events among various migrant groups.
• To support migrants in engaging in outdoor recreation and event.
• To support recreation and event organizers in creating more accessible and inclusive events.

The project is funded via the Miun-Östersund municipality agreement, and is carried out in close dialogue with the Östersund municipality.