ABSTRACT
Drawing on diaspora theory, this chapter examines how Afghan and Pakistani immigrants in the Global North use sport to preserve identity, negotiate belonging, or confront postcolonial realities. Moreover, to expand the scholarship, this chapter focuses on the broader debates about identity formation, cultural hybridity, and social integration through the lens of diaspora theory. An auto-ethnographic approach identifies sport as both a cultural practice and a site of negotiation and struggle, revealing how Pakistani and Afghan migrants engage with sporting spaces to preserve heritage, sometimes construct community, and navigate the complexities of integration within a predominantly American sporting culture. The “American dream,” with its all-encompassing promises of opportunity and upward mobility, looms large in the narratives of these migrants but is also tempered by the realities of systemic barriers. Lastly, the notion of Diasporic Sport as Conditional Belonging theory is introduced in this chapter as a framework to untangle the experiences of Afghan and Pakistani diaspora while participating and consuming sport in the United States.
