Migration and Career Transitions in Professional Sports: Transnational Athletic Careers in a Psychological and Sociological Perspective

Transcription

1 Sociology of Sport Journal, 2014, 31, Human Kinetics, Inc. Official Journal of NASSS ARTICLE Migration and Career Transitions in Professional Sports: Transnational Athletic Careers in a Psychological and Sociological Perspective Sine Agergaard University of Copenhagen/Aarhus University Tatiana V. Ryba Aarhus University With rising globalization and professionalization within sports, athletes are increasingly migrating across national borders to take up work, and their athletic and nonathletic development is thereby shaped and lived in different countries. Through the analysis of interviews with female professional transnational athletes, this article contextualizes and discusses arguments for developing an interdisciplinary framework to account for lived experiences of the close intertwining between transnational migration and career development in professional sports. By combining our psychological and sociological perspectives, we identify three normative career transitions for transnational athletes. First of all, transnational recruitment that draws on social networks as well as individual agency. Secondly, establishment as a transnational athlete that is connected to cultural and psychological adaptation as well as development of transnational belonging, and thirdly, professional athletic career termination that for transnational athletes is connected to a (re)constitution of one s transnational network and sense of belonging. Avec l augmentation de la globalisation et de la professionnalisation en sport, de plus en plus d athlètes dépassent leurs frontières nationales pour le travail, et leur développement sportif et non-sportif est donc influencé par différents pays et vécu dans différents pays. À travers l analyse d entrevues avec des athlètes professionnelles transnationales, cet article met en contexte et discute les arguments en faveur du développement d un cadre interdisciplinaire pour rendre compte des expériences vécues du mélange entre migration transnationale et développement de carrière dans les sports professionnels. En combinant nos perspectives psychologiques et sociologiques, nous identifions trois transitions de carrière normatives pour les Agergaard is with Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Copenhagen/Section of Sport Science, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Ryba is with Section of Sport Science, Department of Public Health Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Address author correspondence to Sine Agergaard at sa@sport.au.dk. 228

2 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 229 athlètes transnationaux. Premièrement, le recrutement transnational qui s appuie sur les réseaux sociaux autant que sur la capacité d agir individuelle. Deuxièmement, l établissement comme athlète transnational(e) qui est relié à l adaptation culturelle et psychologique ainsi qu au développement d une appartenance transnationale, et troisièmement, la fin de carrière d un(e) athlète professionnel(le) qui, pour les athlètes transnationaux, est reliée à une (re)constitution de leur propre réseau transnational et de leur sentiment d appartenance. Geographical mobility has become a crucial part of career development today (Vertovec, 2001, 2002). Temporary mobility or permanent migration 1 to new work places (and societies) can be crucial for an individual s career trajectory, while adaptation to and termination of this mobile career are also crucial turning phases in an individual s life trajectory. The closely intertwined relationship between migration and career development is particularly relevant for the highly skilled labor force, including financial experts, engineers, computing and IT-specialists, technicians, health professionals, and researchers (Meyer, 2001). Athletes, coaches, and sports administrative personnel are also, to an increasing extent, moving across national and continental borders to work (Carter, 2011a; Maguire & Falcous, 2010). The phenomenon of sports labor migration has mainly been studied by sociologists and geographers with particular attention to macro-structural dimensions as global patterns and fluxes of migration, centers and peripheries, push and pull factors, possible impacts on host and donor countries, and the role of international and national policy (Bale, 2004; Darby, 2000, 2007; Darby, Akindes, & Kirwin, 2007; Lanfranchi & Taylor, 2001; Maguire & Stead, 1998; Poli, 2005, 2006; Taylor, 2006). Figurational sociological perspectives on sports labor migration have also been employed to reveal global networks of power and their influence on the flows of sports labor migration (Bale, 1991; Elliott & Maguire, 2008; Falcous & Maguire, 2005; Maguire, 1988, 1994, 1999; Poli, 2010a, 2010b). In so doing, the strength of sociological research on sports labor migration has been to identify global social structures and asymmetric power relations (e.g., between the Global North and South) as an influential background for athletes mobility and career development. Until recently, microsociological analyses of sports labor migration have been rare (for exceptions see particularly chapters in Maguire & Falcous, 2010). The main focus in microsociological analyses has been directed toward developing typologies for athletes motives for migrating (Magee & Sugden, 2002; Maguire, 1996, 2004). Some studies also pointed to the ways in which athletic migrants motivating and demotivating experiences interweave with their adaptation processes, state interventions, and (implicit) integration strategies in their clubs (Agergaard, 2008; Botelho & Agergaard, 2011; Carter, 2007). A transnational perspective on sports labor migration has recently been advocated to fuse the macro- and microperspectives to show consideration both for cross-border relations (bearing both on power constraints as well as enabling network options) as well as the individual athlete s local embeddedness and transnational belonging (Agergaard & Haugaa Engh, 2012; Carter, 2011a, 2011b). Sport psychologists interest in athlete mobility and migration is primarily evident through research on athlete coping during career transitions, identifying barriers and resources, and adaptation strategies to facilitate athletes successful transition into a new sporting environment (e.g., Ceci Erpi, Wylleman, & Zupan i, 2004; Schinke, Yukelson, Bartolacci, Battochio, & Johnstone, 2011).

3 230 Agergaard and Ryba Considering that sport psychology has been traditionally underpinned by positivist and functionalist approaches to its research and praxis, it is not surprising that most sport psychologists focus on the practical and examine what athletes actually do to adjust to new sociocultural contexts. Sports career researchers individual level of analysis, nevertheless, takes into consideration that athletes development spans the athletic and postathletic career, including transitions occurring in sporting as well as other domains of athletes lives (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). Moreover, interand intracultural variations in athlete career pathways have been acknowledged, calling for increased contextual sensitivity in career research (Ryba & Stambulova, 2013; Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009; Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, & Côté, 2009; Stambulova & Ryba, 2013a). While sociological research on sports labor migration and psychological research on athlete career transitions stem from incommensurable paradigms, both strands have generated some overlapping research themes (e.g., motives for migration and adaptation, push and pull factors, identity, social support/networks) and both came to a realization that social and individual factors play an important role in shaping athletes experiences. We do not suggest that sport psychologists and sport sociologists have a shared imaginary of the future of sports migration and athlete career transition research. However, there seems to be a moment of possibility to creatively explore and theorize about common issues such as: what transitions are crucial in transnational athletes career development? And how does psychological adaptation to these transitions unfold in and through matrices of social power? In our efforts to answer such questions, we draw on recent studies that have highlighted the dynamic interconnectivity between the psychological and sociocultural aspects of sport migrants experiences of cultural transitions and adaptation to lives as transnational athletes (Agergaard & Botelho, 2010, 2013; Agergaard & Tiesler, 2014; Ronkainen, Harrison, & Ryba, in press; Ryba, 2009; Ryba, Haapanen, Mosek, & Ng, 2012; Schinke & McGannon, 2013; Stambulova & Ryba, 2013b; Thorpe, 2012a). In addition, we consider empirical insights from interviews with 18 transnational women s soccer players about their sociopsychological experiences of migration and career paths. By doing so, we aim to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of migrating female athletes career transitions in an attempt to paint a fuller, more complete picture (Thorpe, 2012b, p. 1) of transnational career development in professional sports than is currently depicted by disciplinary strokes in sport psychology or sport sociology alone. First, we reflect on the challenges we have faced in conveying an interdisciplinary approach to transnational athletes career transitions. Second, we inquire into athletes lived experiences of transnational migration and career transitions as they relate to: a) transnational recruitment, b) becoming a transnational athlete, and c) athletic career termination. Finally, we discuss a tentative analytical framework for understanding the development of a transnational athletic career, taking into consideration both the social structures and individual agency in producing mobility and belonging as transnational athletes. Coming to Terms Across Disciplines Responding to the editors of this special issue call to critically examine the possibilities for change emanating from the individual or micro level, our starting point

4 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 231 for this article was the identification of our joint interest in professional athletes lived experiences of transnationalism. We began by discussing interdisciplinary research on migration, transnationalism, career transitions and adaptation. While we anticipated building our arguments upon concepts derived from interdisciplinary research at the beginning of our collaboration, working on this manuscript allowed us to glean additional insights into the situated and incomplete nature of knowledge as our disciplinary backgrounds, rooted in social anthropology and cultural sport psychology respectively, were still effective in analyzing and writing about transnational athletes lived experiences. 2 Agergaard has taken inspiration from the transnational turn in the social sciences from the 1990s (Levitt, DeWind & Vertovec, 2003; Levitt & Jaworsky, 2007). At that time, the concept of transnationalism was being developed across disciplines to analyze people s cross-border activities and the sense of belonging that occurs as economic, political, and social transactions across borders intensify (Portes, Guarnizo, & Landolt, 1999). In comparison with macro-sociological approaches to globalization and social integration that are applying or building on structuralism and functionalism (e.g., Durkheim), the transnational turn in the social sciences also has roots in poststructural and postcolonial thinking, as it aims to bring migrant agency back into migration studies (Glick Schiller, Basch, & Szanton Blanc, 1995). A pioneering definition stresses the agency of transmigrants not only as immigrants but also as particular persons bound up in and developing multiple social relations: Immigrants are understood to be transmigrants when they develop and maintain multiple relations organizational, religious, and political that span borders Transmigrants take actions, make decisions, and feel concerns within a field of social relations that links together their country of origin and their country or countries of settlement. (Glick Schiller et al., 1992, p. ix) As indicated above, the transnational turn in the social sciences has directed attention toward transnational social relations (such as transnational networks) framing and enabling subjective feelings of transnational belonging (Glick Schiller, 2003). In comparison, Ryba s definition of the transnational is more oriented toward individual practices and fluidity of cultural performativity in the course of life-span development. Thus, Ryba and Stambulova (2013) defined transnational athletes as mobile subjects, who conduct cross-border activities on a regular basis and whose athletic and non-athletic development is transformed through transnational practices (p. 11). Sharing Thorpe s (2012a) observation that for some sports migrants, transnational lifestyle prompts self-growth leading to greater personal and social reflexivity, Ryba emphasizes the transformative power of transnational experiences for individual psychosocial development. The individual s access to experience is contextually contained within a developmental pathway depending on one s sociocultural and historical situatedness. Moreover, experience itself is contingent on one s position within relations of power (Hall, 1992; Hundeide, 2005). Another contentious contact point between psychological and sociological crosscultural research is around terms such as acculturation, assimilation, and integration. With early 1990s policy and research, the focus was on immigrants who were seeking permanent settlement (excluding more temporary and circular forms of mobility). Emphasizing assimilation and integration, researchers perhaps inadvertently supported

5 232 Agergaard and Ryba the political objectives of many nation states to integrate newcomers into an established unity (Levitt & Jaworsky, 2007), rather than turning attention to options of cultural hybridity, variety, and autonomy (Faist, 2000). From a psychological perspective, integration and assimilation are two of the four adaptive strategies that individuals use in response to stress-inducing new cultural contexts. The remaining two strategies include separation and marginalisation (Berry, 1980, 1985; Berry & Sam, 1997). In the influential acculturation model developed by Berry and colleagues in cross-cultural psychology, the aforementioned four strategies are linked to the development of immigrant identity as newcomers are socialized into a new cultural community. This model has been critiqued by cultural psychologists for its linearity that is accepting an ontological story of rooted cultures and uprooted immigration and the universalist perspective on acculturation, which suggests that psychological processes are essentially the same for all individuals (Bhatia, 2002; Bhatia & Ram, 2009; Hermans & Kempen, 1998). More recently, Chirkov (2009) argued that cultural psychological research on acculturation holds theoretical and practical significance for the social sciences and social policy as it offers comprehensive accounts of individual interaction with constraining social structures and demanding cultural beliefs. Despite our conceptual differences in focusing either on agentic individuals or social networks within the transnational framework, both of us lean toward a cultural studies paradigm; taking inspiration from critical theory to reflect on the ways in which specific social and political contexts influence the lives of individuals (Sardar & van Loon, 1994). Cultural studies that emerged in the 1970s entered a new phase toward the turn of the century, which resulted in a reconceptualization of power as largely post-hegemonic (Lash, 2007, p. 55). Where hegemony refers to domination through ideology or discourse, the posthegemonic flow of power is becoming more internalized (domination from within), and appears as a generative force (Lash, 2007, p. 56). From this perspective, echoing Chirkov s (2009) assertion, it is more relevant than ever before to develop interdisciplinary accounts of the relationships between individual experiences and social structures. In our collaborative effort to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of a transnational athletic career, we focus on discerning female athletes crucial transitions and adaptation processes to transnational mobility. In the athlete career literature, career transitions are defined as normative (i.e., predictable) and nonnormative (i.e., more idiosyncratic and less predictable) turning phases in athletes career development triggered by a set of demands with which athletes have to cope to continue successfully in their sport or to adjust to their postsport career (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007; Stambulova, et al., 2009). Individual coping is emphasized as a key factor determining the career transition outcome either a positive transition or a crisis transition. 3 Recently Ryba (2011; also Ryba & Stambulova, 2013; Stambulova & Ryba, 2013b) advocated the need to open up the athletic career framework to a multiplicity of meanings, underpinning career pathways in various sociocultural contexts, which influence how athletes make sense of themselves and their careers, and what decisions they make. In other words, approaching a career as a culturally constituted context, in which an athlete s development occurs, highlights the continuous reciprocity between the psyche and context. Interested in the ways transnational migrants subjectify 4 their immediate space to feel at home, Ryba et al. (2012) studied Finnish female swimmers adaptation during their training camp in

6 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 233 Australia. Emphasizing the intimate and messy dynamics between psychological processes and the culture that surrounds them, Ryba and colleagues rejected Berry s explanatory model of acculturation. Instead the authors proposed the notion of acute cultural adaptation as an open-ended process of negotiation between maintaining a subjective sense of wellbeing and participating in acculturative everyday practices. In this paper we push this perspective further by suggesting that developing transnational subjectivity and belonging is an important aspect of migrating athletes adaptation in the process of temporal anchoring in new places. Instead of individual coping, we emphasize transnational networks of power and athletes simultaneous embeddedness in various home societies as framing athletes opportunities, agency, and constraints. The starting point in our analyses of women s soccer players experiences is the identification of normative transitions in the course of transnational athletic career development. Focusing on both athletic and nonathletic dimensions of transnational career development, we suggest that transnational recruitment, becoming a transnational athlete, and athletic career termination are normative (i.e., expected) and crucial transitions in transnational athletes lives that are enabled and constrained by broader power structures. Method and Analysis The phenomenon of female soccer players moving from afar into Scandinavian women s soccer will serve here to illustrate crucial career transitions for transnational athletes. In so doing we are referring to a migratory flux that is smaller than the numerically larger streams of male soccer players and migrants in other sports disciplines. Nevertheless, emerging dimensions of transnationalism in sports are spelled out for us in the current development of women s soccer. The sport is currently undergoing significant growth in participation in all parts of the world, 5 increasing professionalization (of coaches, players and sports officials), and increasing mobility (of players in particular). 6 These tendencies are all apparent in Scandinavian women s soccer that has been identified as one among several centers of women s soccer migration (Botelho & Agergaard, 2011). Our analysis will be based on interviews conducted by the first author with 18 transnational athletes (8 Africans and 10 North Americans), who were playing in the Danish, Norwegian or Swedish premier leagues of women s soccer between 2009 and At the time of the interviews, the participants had played at least one season in Scandinavia, and their age range was between 23 and 34 years. Within both the African and North American groups, there were newcomers as well as players who had been playing in Scandinavia for several years. All participants were interviewed about their moves to and within Scandinavia, their experiences while being located in a Scandinavian club, and their future aspirations. North American and African players were chosen for interviews since they are the major groups in the cross-continental migration into Scandinavian women s soccer. In designing a study bearing on these general group categories (with the possible stigmatizing effects thereof), we consider various ways in which social power relations, such as regional policies and economics, the global soccer economy, class, gender and race, do affect the options for and experiences of individual athletic migrants. Thus, in addition to the vast geographical distances involved in

7 234 Agergaard and Ryba their migration, the two groups of African and North American migrant players are particularly interesting for analyzing transnational migration and career development in sports, since they represent a variety in our sample between the social positioning of transnational athletes and individual ways into athletic migration. The North American migrants mostly held at least a bachelor-level degree from an American university when they arrived in Scandinavia, while only one of the African players had a degree from a tertiary institution. This is related to the fact that while most of the North American players came from middle-class backgrounds, the African players were mostly from working class families, even if the concept of class is not equivalent in North America and Africa. Women s and girls soccer in North America is predominantly organized through schools and universities, making it possible for players to obtain athletic scholarships to study and play soccer simultaneously (Markovits & Hellerman, 2003). For the African players, however, the availability of athletic scholarships is limited, and women and girls soccer tends to be organized through independent clubs, with little or no connection to schools and universities (Clark & Burnett, 2010; Haugaa Engh, 2011a, 2011b; Saavedra, 2004). These differences in our participants backgrounds are important in contextualizing their experiences of crucial transitions occurring in transnational athletic careers. Transnational Mobility: Networks of Power and Agency of Individuals Applying an interdisciplinary perspective, we were both interested in considering the significance of social networks of power as well as individual athletes agency to develop their sporting careers. Obtaining mobility is the first turning point in the career development of transnational athletes. A transition from a national to a transnational athletic career 8 is particularly crucial for those who come from countries where there are fewer options for developing a professional career. Drawing on the sociological literature on sports labor migration, we point to the significance of networks of power that place the individual as interdependent with other individuals and groups in networks structured by power asymmetries (Maguire, 2012). However, the psychological literature on career transitions also reminds us that individual coping is essential for the outcome of a transition. Here we will refer to the concept of agency since it allows for a dynamic understanding of individual ability to influence social processes as variable (between groups) and as changing over time (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). When considering the initial moves of female soccer players, it soon became clear that transnational social networks were highly important for producing players mobility. This may be explained by the relatively sparse economy in women s soccer. The recruiting clubs can often not afford to undertake extensive international talent identification, and the players cannot afford to pay for a number of try-outs (Agergaard & Botelho, 2010). The role of transnational social networks in the initial recruitment phase into becoming a transnational athlete is particularly clear in the North American players descriptions of their moves into Scandinavia: So, I came to [Scandinavian country] because of contacts I guess. (Doris) I came because I was invited by a fellow American who was already here with the team. (Katrin)

8 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 235 In Europe it is all about who you know, and that decides how you get over here. I got over to England because I played on a debut league team with an Irish girl, that was going to be a player coach on the team in England, and she said hey, why don t you come over? Same thing with [Scandinavian country], I played on a debut league team with a girl that played in [Scandinavian club], and she said hey, I have some contact information for some coaches in [Scandinavian country], why don t you go over there? (Catharine) As illustrated above, transnational social networks are present in sports labor migration as friends-of-friends networks (Bale, 1991) and bridgeheads (Elliott & Maguire, 2008; Meyer, 2001). For example, a Scandinavian coach in Canada supported the migration of a number of Canadian players into Scandinavia. These transnational networks are also considered advantageous by coaches and club managers in the host destination since recruitment through fellow coaches and former or current players helps to provide the recruiters (and recruits) with information about their employee or employer before (trial) recruitment. Still, transnational networks are also decisive for which players gain mobility and which do not. African players descriptions of their moves into Scandinavia also turns attention to transnational recruitment channels; namely the ways in which international sporting events, such as tournaments and camps, are used to create meetings between players, intermediaries and/or recruiters. Moreover, the African players have to a larger extent made use of (more or less) formal agents: I knew an agent in [Scandinavian country] that was the one that brought me to [Scandinavian country].he s a player s agent not with a Fifa exam. He s a guy that everyone knows. (Olga) I knew a guy in Germany who saw me playing and phoned a friend and said he would like to bring me to [Scandinavian country]. He is not a FIFA player s agent. I just happened to know him. (Margaret) In other words, African players seem to have a greater reliance on agents and intermediaries in producing transnational mobility than the North American players. Having an agent may be seen as a support for migrant players negotiation of labor conditions and salaries before arriving in the club (as opposed to arriving through a friend with an unsettled contract). However, in this case the distinction between friends and agents is not straightforward (as illustrated in the quotes above), and intermediaries appear as crucial gatekeepers. Moreover, there are a number of agents working without formal licenses and sufficient networks to promote and protect the players they represent. When considering the two groups of migrant players moves into Scandinavia, a variety in mobility appears that can be explained with the help of Maguire s conceptualization of overlapping/intersecting sociospatial networks of power (Maguire et al., 2002). In this case, networks of power are intersecting so that categories of gender, race, and class, overlap to produce specific pathways to a transnational athletic career for the two groups of players. North American players paths into Scandinavian clubs appear possible by their development of relationships with fellow players and coaches that may help their mobility, while African players seem to have a higher dependence on agents and intermediaries in producing transnational

9 236 Agergaard and Ryba mobility in a more dubious transfer industry. So in the transition into transnational recruitment, African female soccer migrants appear affected by the hierarchy that has held all of African football well behind Europe and Latin America a predicament which is only now beginning to change (Saavedra, 2004, pp ). Nevertheless, in having produced their initial move, often to Eastern European countries, several of the African players were able to develop relations and negotiate transfers into Scandinavian clubs. Thus, our analysis also needs to take account of the fact that migrant players social relations are not static and uniform, and that athletes are able to influence their (further) mobility. In other words, considering the role of agency along with sociological perspectives on networks of power alerts our attention to the variety in (individual and groups of) athletes initial moves into a transnational athletic career. Becoming a Transnational Athlete: Adaptation and Transnational Belonging The transition from being a transnational novice to becoming more established as a transnational athlete is another important phase of career development. This turning phase is closely related not only to processes of individual adaptation to a new local sociocultural setting, but also to processes of maintaining social connections with family members, friends, and organizations in their society of origin. In other words, the transition should not be seen as a simple process of assimilating to a new local setting, but rather as a process through which athletes develop a transnational belonging involving membership in groups that extends beyond national borders. When the players were interviewed about their first experiences in Scandinavia, a number of issues emerged about adapting to the style of play, weather, language, and culture. In relation to these adaptation processes, it became clear that it was crucial for the athletes (to varying degrees) not only to get acquainted to a new physical and social environment, but also to stay in touch with their family and friends from their native countries, as well as countries they had moved through. Interpreted within a cultural psychological perspective of acute cultural adaptation (Ryba et al., 2012), the players can be seen to negotiate the extent of their immersion into local culture sustaining their psychological wellbeing through a range of material and imaginary practices of belonging in their own cultural, diasporic, and/or transnational communities. Processes of acute cultural adaptation can be observed to take place on the field, where the players partly engage in a Scandinavian playing style while simultaneously cherishing their own rootedness in a different playing style. This is among other things illustrated in the African players descriptions of the collective playing style in Scandinavia as opposed to a more individualistic and artful playing style back home. As Cathy said: Here it s much more, how do you say, it is collective. Back home we do a lot of skills you know the dribbling; make fun out of football. Making the game beautiful when given the opportunity was Cathy s way to subjectify space and time (Benson, 2001, p. 7) making herself feel at home on the pitch. Moreover, Cathy described how she has developed what appears as her belonging in a transnational playing style in playing off and on the ball. Several of the North American players, such as Lana, also described how they experienced the need to adapt to a new playing style; passing the ball onto their

10 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 237 team-mates and running into position. According to the players, the difficulty of adapting to a new style of playing soccer explained the generally poor performances of some foreign players in their initial period in a foreign club and why several players decided to return to their home countries before the end of their contract. As Maguire (1999) has pointed out, it is both on and off the field that the players face the issue of adjustment, and possible issues of dislocation and retention. The interviewed female soccer migrants did adjust and demonstrated few signs of dislocation. Rather, they presented themselves as agentic individuals who are developing and maintaining their cross-border social relations both on and off the field. All interviewed migrant players did refer to cultural differences between themselves and the Scandinavian players, with particular concerns regarding communication. A need to adapt was particularly acute for those migrants who did not speak the language and were unfamiliar with their new environment, highlighting that cultural transition is a psychological process of social repositioning and a (re)constitution of meaning in a new cultural field (Ronkainen, Harrison & Ryba, 2014). Articulating the psychological concept of acute cultural adaptation with the sociological perspective on transnational migration is relevant here to emphasize that the migrant players adapted but also developed their transnational belonging by adhering both to playing styles and cultural practices in their countries of origin and destination. That is, the athletic migrants developed what might be referred to as multiple embeddedness in that they made connections and established networks in various contexts simultaneously. Several of the migrant players described how they continued to be involved in activities back home through their daily use of social media (e.g., Facebook, Skype). They also discussed the importance of cultural practices in their new locality. In particular, going to church was important for a number of the African players. For these migrant players, church represented a transnational and possibly diasporic community, in which they developed their sense of belonging in local and transnational relations. One African player, for example, spoke of having found a church in her neighborhood that provided her with feelings of community membership: I have many friends outside the club [in host and home country]. I m friends with former teammates and my present teammates. I also use to go to church. I like to worship and it s important for me to meet other people; often Africans there. (Margaret) Church worship and communication through social media or other forms of transnational activities seemed to contribute to particularly the African players attachment to multiple communities, simultaneously. Thus, in accounting for the migrant players establishment in their transnational athletic career it appears relevant to inquire into processes of acute adaptation to a new sociocultural setting. Bearing on the transnational turn in the social sciences where attention has moved away from solely focusing on adaptation among immigrants toward transmigrants multiple embeddedness, we suggest that adaptation may be seen as part of processes whereby athletic migrants develop their transnational belonging involving membership of groups in the various contexts they are embedded in.

11 238 Agergaard and Ryba Ending the Transnational Athletic Career A third crucial transition in a transnational athletic career is when the active athletic career approaches its end. For transnational athletes, sports career termination is not only a crucial change in terms of their athletic development, nonathletic dimensions such as nationality, vocational training and socioeconomic position are also important for this transition. Psychologists and sociologists have typically approached this subject differently. Whereas the holistic lifespan theoretical framework (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) widely used in career research accounts for psychosocial changes in athletes lives inside and outside of sports, sociological sports labor migration studies points to migrant players positioning in global power relations as significant in the opportunities and constrains migrant athletes face as they make plans for their futures. We see value in both approaches. Almost all of the African and most of the North American athletes expressed that they would like to continue working in soccer after their retirement, either as project managers, coaches, or scouts. Yet such opportunities are not available to all female athletes, and factors related to their athletic career, as well as education and national identity influence how realistic such goals might be for the different women. In addition, at professional sports career termination, individual athletes reconstituted their sense of belonging and their social position in transnational networks in various ways. All of the North American players, except one, were oriented toward returning to the USA or Canada. Being active players, some of them were still uncertain about which jobs and roles to seek after their professional sport s career. Others had reasonably clear plans about what to do after their active soccer career. The general impression was that there were several options available to the North American players in terms of settlement, education, and jobs within or outside of the sporting field: I am going to move into my apartment in Montreal, I have only been in it twice, it will be nice to actually move my stuff in. I will then apply to schools, depending on how my independent studies have gone. (Rachel) Right now I m working as the marketing director in the football club, so I could continue doing something like that where I am involved in a club or be a trainer. (Agnes) As these comments suggest, some North American players managed to continue developing their nonathletic education and careers while being full or part-time professionals in Scandinavian clubs. This is less prevalent among African players from whom several described unsuccessful attempts to enter Scandinavian higher education. This is probably, as mentioned previously, related to differences between the educational attainment of migrants in the two groups and power asymmetries in the relationships through which the two groups of migrant players produce and return from transnational mobility. In line with the holistic lifespan perspective on career transitions, it is important here to consider transitions as related to the athletes psychological, social, academic, as well as vocational development (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004; Wylleman, Lavallee, & Alfermann, 1999) occurring in a specific historical and sociocultural context (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013b).

12 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 239 At professional career termination, the African players must negotiate their position in transnational networks among others in relation to class, gender, racial and education structures. In the interviews we had little immediate reference to players experiences of racialization, but several descriptions of the fact that particularly the African players faced a number of challenges in the Scandinavian setting. These challenges and the significance of athletes level of class and education are illustrated in the quote below where an African player referred to the difficulty of living in Scandinavia, commenting particularly on the effects of her lack of education. I have my plans; I know what I want to do. It can be a little problem not having an education. I don t want to go to school in [Scandinavian country], but in USA or in Turkey. It s difficult for me to live here in [Scandinavian country]. (Olga) Several of the African player s future plans changed while talking to the interviewer. For instance: I want to become a physiotherapist. That s my plan. I have to go to school in [Scandinavian country]. I want to become an exporter and importer; of trades. If I have the possibility to become a player s agent I will do so. I don t know what will come tomorrow; injury. I know what I will do. (Carol) On the one hand, African players descriptions of their future plans refer to their optimism and perceived readiness to deal with the challenges that lie ahead. On the other hand, their descriptions of life after a professional athletic career also demonstrate a number of structural determinants influencing where athletes can settle and work when their professional athletic career is over. The limitations for life after professional sports career termination are also evident in the fact that several of the African players continued playing even in their late 30 s. The limited agency of athletes in relation to their career termination is particularly prevalent in the African players descriptions of their future plans, while still being active soccer players. Once their contracts end it is likely they will face structural challenges of losing financial support, help from club managers on administrative issues, and not least their permit to stay, unless they had stayed in the country for a number of years (e.g., in Denmark 7 years). Thus, in transnational athletes repositioning after their professional career, aspects of national belonging (to nations that are granted visas or not, etc.), and not least their class and education becomes highly important for their future options. In other words, athletic career termination occurred as a crucial transition for those involved in transnational mobility. While some athletes were able to continue pursuing transnational activities after the end of their athletic career, such opportunities were not available to all. Moreover, it is likely that this transition involves shifts in former professional athletes position in transnational networks and not least their feelings of belonging. Thus, a longer career as a transnational athlete seems to influence not only the social network an athlete is involved in, but also her sense of belonging and her future aspirations. A Tentative Framework for Transnational Athletic Careers In developing an interdisciplinary framework for studying transnational athletes career transitions in professional sports, we have found that psychological athlete

13 240 Agergaard and Ryba career theories and the concept of acute cultural adaptation, as well as sociological perspectives on global networks (with power asymmetries) and transmigrants experiences of embeddedness in both home and host countries, cover a range of the multiple layers in athletes lived experiences of career transitions. (Figure 1) First of all, transnational recruitment appears as a crucial career transition, and both individual coping and social networks play a role in the process of producing mobility. Here we have opted for the concept of agency to integrate an understanding of the potential for the individual to produce mobility with sociological perspectives on networks of power enabling and constraining transnational athletes mobility. Our analysis illustrates that the transition into transnational networks is not just a straightforward trajectory of access and opportunity; there are power asymmetries present in local, as well as transnational relations, in the shape of different conditions for players in their context of origin and context of destination, which makes it not only more difficult for African athletes to produce transnational mobility, but also to transit from a career as a transnational migrant. The relationships between prospective migrant athletes and the more or less formal player s agents deserve more particular attention in future studies. Figure 1 A Sociopsychological Model of Transitions in Transnational Athletic Career

14 Migration and Career Transitions in Sports 241 Secondly, in our interdisciplinary framework we found it relevant to take the crucial turn to having established and developed a sense of belonging as a transnational athlete into consideration. The psychological perspective on acute cultural adaptation focuses mainly on the ways in which athletes accommodate their local sociocultural space and begin to feel at home in their host society. 9 In contrast, the sociological perspective on transnational embeddedness emphasizes the multiplicity in athletes sense of belonging to various societies simultaneously. Working across disciplines, we see the processes of individual adaptation to be unfolding in a complex translocal interplay between developing a sense of belonging in local as well as transnational relations. The diverse experiences of different groups of athletes expressions of belonging is worth studying further, taking into consideration the influence of self- and other-perceptions of the particular group of African players in Scandinavia (Haugaa Engh, Agergaard & Maguire, 2013). Thirdly, for our interdisciplinary analytical framework we suggest considering career termination for transnational athletes within a holistic life-span perspective (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004), accounting for athletic and nonathletic dimensions as lived in specific sociocultural contexts (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013b). Adding sociological perspectives on transnational migration could help to shed light on the ways in which career termination involves changes in an athlete s social network (that spans borders), and the significance of belonging to social groups of different race, gender and level of education. Transnational athletes may still continue to conduct their lives in transnational rather than local settings, though issues of reproducing the mobility they have obtained, and issues of immobility may be even more pertinent in one s postprofessional athletic career. 10 Concluding Thoughts Pointing to a number of crucial transitions in transnational athletic careers, we argue that career development in professional sports cannot be studied solely from the vantage point of methodological nationalism that regards nation-state borders as limits for the social unit of society and as the unit of analysis (Amelina, Nergiz, Faist & Glick Schiller, 2012). Studies should take account of the multiple sites within and between where athletes develop their place in the mobile labor force of modern sports, and the influence transnational mobility and adaptation to different sociocultural contexts have on an individual s athletic and nonathletic development. In an attempt to go beyond methodological nationalism and disciplinary singularity we have suggested an interdisciplinary framework for studying transnational athletes career transitions based on our background on the borders of psychology and sociology, respectively. As discussed, our disciplinary backgrounds continue to inform our choice of concepts, yet through the process of working together on this project we developed a greater understanding of concepts from each other s field, as well as a greater reflexivity about our own preferred conceptual approaches. In this paper we drew inspiration from a multiplicity of perspectives on athlete migration, yet our inclination toward cultural studies formed a common realm of understanding. In a tentative model, we have pointed to recruitment, establishment and career termination as crucial transitions for transnational athletes. Other normative and particularly nonnormative career transitions, such as those related to injuries and

15 242 Agergaard and Ryba de-selection may also be added to our interdisciplinary model of transnational athletes career development. Further studies are also needed to reveal the extent to which this framework may be useful for other groups of transnational athletes and for migration in other sports disciplines. Our analysis has focused on those athletes who are able to produce transnational mobility, thus leaving space for critical studies of immobility and failures in producing athletic migration. The transnational perspective tends to focus on the elite of migrants that manage to create cross-border relations and develop a transnational belonging, while the importance of migrants lived experiences of physical and emotional belonging to specific places and persons is often not spelled out (Jackson, Crang & Dwyer, 2004; Thorpe, 2012a). Given that sport careers are relatively short term and often high-risk (emotionally and physically) we may here have an important case for studying some of the consequences of transnational mobility on the lives of women and men in global society. Notes 1. Mobility designates the often short-term and intermittent movement of highly skilled labor, whereas migration has connotations of permanency or long-term stay (Koser & Salt, 1997). The concept of migration is used here since our initial studies showed that this particular kind of labor migration in sports also leads to long-term stays (Agergaard, 2008). 2. Our struggle to find a shared language for the sociopsychological intersection was exacerbated by both of us being the nonnative speakers of English, bringing to life Homi Bhabha s (1994) assertion that translation is always a cultural negotiation and the staging of cultural difference (p. 325). The issue of language, although being beyond the scope of this paper, is important in transnational research when researchers and participants often communicate their understanding in the language other than their mother tongue. 3. Effectiveness of coping depends on the balance between the coping resources and barriers. Resources and barriers are internal and external factors that either facilitate the transition or interfere with the coping process (Stambulova, 2003). 4. Ciaran Benson (2001) asserted that humans inhabit places rather than occupy spaces (p. 7), which is in correspondence with Michel de Certeau s (1984) ideas about place being an instantaneous configuration of positions (which) implies an indication of stability (p. 14). Places usually have a name (e.g., an invitation to one s home is an invitation to visit one s place) and have unique intimate connections to one s memories, experiences and identity. When Benson writes about the subjectification of space and time (ibid.), he is interested in processes of making space and time into a place a subjectification that has its roots in collective cultural achievements (ibid.). 5. At the latest big count in 2007, the number of registered female soccer players had reached 26 million (FIFA, 2007), which has been explained as a doubling since 2000 (Tiesler, 2011). 6. This has been explained with the fact that the options for playing as professionals are limited to 17 out of 168 FIFA-listed countries (Tiesler, 2011), and may also be the result of the less economical resources in women s soccer. 7. In using concepts such as Scandinavia, African and North American this study alerts less attention to variety within various regions (e.g., between the development of women s soccer in the various Scandinavian countries), and include crude generalizations of migrant players origins. However, these labels are used to point out generalities in our material, and to protect the anonymity of the players interviewed. 8. This is not to be mistaken with an international career, related to the processes going on when athletes start to compete in international competitions.