Altruism and the domestication of otherness: the ambivalence of caring in grassroots football initiatives for people seeking asylum

This paper contributes to the dialogue between critical approaches to humanitarianism and scholarship on sport and forced migration through an in-depth exploration of a grassroots football initiative – United – supporting refugees and people seeking asylum in central Italy. Drawing on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews and participant observation, it examines how organisers/coaches conceptualise their engagement and how their practices both reflect and challenge asymmetrical relationships between providers and recipients of care. Engaging with seminal critical studies on humanitarianism and debates on grassroots responses to the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, the study raises cautionary concerns about the deprofessionalised, inexperienced, and improvisational nature of certain forms of refugee solidarity and aid – features central to Sandri's notion of volunteer humanitarianism. The article shows that the inexperienced and improvisational approach adopted by United's organisers/coaches carries significant risks of reproducing assimilationist dynamics. It argues for sustained reflexivity to avoid reinforcing hierarchical care relationships and nationalist logics of inclusion.