Soccer, Space, and Community Integration: Being and Becoming Canadian in London, Ontario Through the World\u27s Game

Abstract: In this thesis I explore various forms of participation in organized soccer in London, Ontario – a mid-sized Canadian city with a diverse and growing immigrant community. My research took place between April 2015 and September 2015 and is based on focus group discussions, individual interviews, and casual conversations mainly, but not exclusively, with players and non-players, parents of players, and team or club administrators from London’s soccer community. My work’s primary objective is to provide an informed account of how and why soccer has and continues to be used by immigrant groups in London to integrate into Canadian society. I meet this objective by identifying the ways culture and identities are performed, remembered, gained, or retained through soccer both in the home and in the general community, especially among immigrant men in the 1970s, and more recently two groups, of immigrant women (Latina-Canadians and Muslim-Canadians). Keywords: immigrants, soccer, identity, space, culture, experience, integratio