Abstract

The article begins by offering a panorama of the migration phenomenon in Italy, and the consequences that this has from a social and cultural point of view. In this context we analyse the activities of UISP, that has a million members and 13.000 affiliated sports societies. UISP has tried to develop strategies and practices of civic help for immigrants, on the one hand making use of its own organising resources, and on the other, making an effort to evaluate what is specifically sporting as an experience of non-verbal communication and as a combined strategy of competition and co-operation. We can distinguish four types of actions that have characterised almost ten years of intervention, generally in collaboration with associations of cultural promotion or social assistance which work in the circle of the Third Sector. The first and oldest line of action is represented by the simple putting at disposal of central offices and logistical structures of reception, in which we can develop an embryo of communication between the immigrants and the residents and the various immigrant communities. The second line of intervention, based on the resort to sporting events capable of attracting the attention of the great public and the media. The third area of experience concerns the participation of UISP in the networks and transnational campaigns of fighting against racism. The final and most recent line of action is the development of projects destined to the integration of immigrants all over the country by trying to construct open communitary networks. The article finishes with a series of valuations on the possibilities of sport as an instrument of integration of the immigrant population.