Socioeconomic analysis of the 'Give Back Phenomenon' : african footballers in Europe and their assistance to the communities of origin.

Abstract

The increase in movement of professional footballers from Africa to the European leagues as observed since the 1990’, has transformed the labour football migration. In return, this also impacted African footballers’ incomes, social status, and their relation to the communities of origin in terms of socio-economic support. This research focuses on this subject by drawing on the understanding of the evolution of African professional football, players migration itineraries, as to explain the ‘give back phenomenon’ (GBP) related to their relationship with the communities of origin. It examines the role of the economic and non-economic factors that orient African footballers’ ways of giving back to their families, relatives, and the communities. Their give back may be determined by the aim of return on investments, by the influence of communities’ values, norms, or by embeddedness in social networks or by the institutionalised networks related to footballers’ migration. In other words, the analysis of their giving back may be based on the combination of social, cultural and economic factors. Thus, this research mobilised multidisciplinary approach through the socio-economic theoretical model of analysis. Weber methodology helps to do so, in the analysis of footballers’ 'give back' action. This is generally considered as the players’ social contribution and their communities expect to receive something from financially successful professional African migrant players. The study’s qualitative survey was based on thirty-two interviews of professional players from Africa including, biographies and autobiographies. The results show that African migrant players’ behaviours in term of giving back depend on their justifications, which are based on economic interest, social or cultural logics.The research revealed three major outcomes:1) specific evolution of African football and communities’ perception of professional football. This identifie