Ukrainian refugees’ reception in Swedish sports clubs: ‘deservingness’ and ‘promising victimhood’

Abstract

An emergent discourse along with a small, but growing, body of empirical research scrutinises how Ukrainian refugees are being treated differently compared to other refugee populations and how western societies construct ‘hierarchies of victims’. For social work, a discipline designated to combat inequity, there is a strong incentive to understand if these hierarchies exist within welfare-providing organisations. This paper explores the Swedish sports movement’s reception of Ukrainian refugees vis-à-vis other refugee populations through semi-structured interviews with sports representatives. The theoretical lens used is the perspective on ‘promising victimhood’, where refugees are framed as more or less worthy of the nation-state’s protection and welfare benefit. The results show two themes. Ukrainian refugees are perceived to be culturally- and economically better ‘performers’; they share Swedish values and are perceived as willing to contribute to Swedish society, whereas other refugee groups are depicted as lazy and culturally deviant. Second, the perception of Russia as a threat to Europe makes respondents sympathise to a greater extent with Ukrainian refugees. This sympathy is increased when representatives consider Ukrainian refugees’ demographic characteristics: most are women and children. The results show that social work needs to be vigilant, and challenge, these ideas to not facilitate inequalities in refugees’ reception.