ABSTRACT
This chapter explores three main questions: (1) How and with whose help did sports clubs arrange sports-related, and possibly also non-sports-related activities, for refugees during the ‘refugee crisis’ in Germany in 2015/2016? (2) To what extent do sports clubs change when they arrange activities for refugees? What difficulties do sports clubs face when putting on activities for refugees? (3) How easy was it to recruit people who were not already members of a club to volunteer within the corresponding activity structures of sports clubs? In order to address this, we conducted an explorative qualitative study on selected sports clubs in Berlin that arranged special activities for refugees in 2015/2016. We interviewed seven office-holders and five new volunteers in different clubs. Results show, that all groups of members but especially board members put in work for sports-related projects with refugees, that these projects brought about organisational changes within the sports clubs and that the uncertainty of the 2015/2016 refugee situation in Germany was the biggest difficulty sports clubs faced in their work. Finally, the results are used to derive some recommendations.
