AN ETHNOGRAPHIC VIEW ON AFRICAN FOOTBALL MIGRANTS IN İSTANBUL

Research on African migration to Turkey has so far neglected further inquiry into the presence of footballers from West African countries in İstanbul. Present approaches to football migration tend to victimize ‘stranded’ migrants and in migration research in general, various migration pathways are put into fixed categorizations, losing sight of their diversity. Based on ethnographic research with a group of African football players, I argue that there is a need to shift the view on African migrations in the context of international football. The different migration biographies and everyday experiences of football players in İstanbul presented in this article show a nuanced picture of migration phenomena within global football. Acknowledging the football players as actors in their own right and looking at their practices and rhetoric with regard to their ambitions in football is a necessary step toward overcome too narrow categorizations and allows a better understanding of their migrations.