Introduction

This chapter introduces the topic of the book and explains how it assesses the research question ‘What role does sport play in the context of the “refugee crisis”?' For reaching a satisfying degree of completeness and multifacetedness, this book is based on distinct research lines through different projects on mass media, sports clubs, refugee sites, and elite athletes with a refugee background. This book looks at the role of sport in the context of the ‘refugee crisis’ through these four projects, which differ in terms of their underlying research questions, theoretical frameworks, and empirical methods. While the projects focus mostly on the German case, they also shed some light on the European and global aspects of this topic. The overarching consideration of this topic through a systems theoretical framework enables a differentiated analysis of its various aspects under a both descriptive and critical perspective. With its generality claim, this theory is believed to have the potential to successfully examine, relate, and contextualise this heterogeneous content.