ABSTRACT
The flow of athletes across borders to ply their trade speeds up and spreads farther with each passing year. In this paper we examine four sports within a culture in order to gain clues as to the salience of sport immigration. We compare culturally primary and secondary sports, each of which have experienced increasing migration, to see the scope, effect and governance of these immigration patterns. While much work has been done to identify migration patterns, migration effects, migration motivations, and migration scope, all of this research has been single sport specific and largely lacking in identification of the cultural position of the sport in either the sending or receiving cultures. Further, most of this research has examined sport migration from a sociological perspective; however, those making decisions within these sports about the transfer and use of foreigners are making decisions on competitive grounds and increasingly from a business perspective. Thus it is necessary to examine the issue of sports migration and understand it in light of the push and pull factors influencing sport managers.
