'Score! You Are Now More Canadian': A Case Study Approach to Understanding Citizenship and National Belonging in Sport

This thesis explores the concept of sport as a vehicle of belonging and negotiating identity via case study of the Umoja Games, an annual faith and community-based sport tournament held in the United States and Canada. This study explores the narratives of the players and the co-founder combined with data collected through the Umoja Games social media to understand the ways in which identities, ideas of citizenship and the sense of belonging to the nation are negotiated, constructed, and understood by participants. The Umoja Games becomes a unique setting in which transnational movement, political/social climates, and multiple identities are highlighted and pushed to the foreground allowing for an in-depth analysis of the undergoing negotiation processes of identity building and belonging. This study utilizes the foundational assumptions of post-colonial theory and social constructivism lens to conceptualize, examine, and analyse identity and the notions of belonging. This study reveals multiple interconnected themes that allow for a better understanding of second-generation bicultural identities and the ways in which the sense of belonging is negotiated given such identities. Utilizing Antonsichs (2010) analytical framework avoids the conflation of belonging to identity and citizenship, revealing the nuances behind the participants feelings of belonging as multi-scalar, interwoven with their own experiences, relational, cultural, economic, and legal factors. Participants understanding of their own identities proves to be complex, supporting existing research that emphasizes the negotiation process between two identities. However, this negotiation surpasses the binary of finding the balance between two cultures instead participants narratives indicate that identity negotiation exists in the Third Space (Bhabha, 1994). The socio-political, environmental, and cultural conditions that participants describe as Muslim Canadian citizens significantly impacted the ways in which participants experience sport (both mainstream and community) as well as the ways they come to understand their identities and sense of belonging to the nation.