Sport migration in Costa Rica: Motivations and Goals of Athletes Outflow

Abstract

Sport migration in Costa Rica: Motivations, Goals and Consequences of Athletes Outflow

Ivon Carballo Global Sport Management, Department of Physical Education Seoul National University

Costa Rica is a very small country in Central America with almost no sport tradition other than men soccer. Nowadays sport migration, especially the athletes outflow to other countries, is a growing phenomenon not only in soccer but in many other sports. While sport in Costa Rica has been extensively studied in the areas of sports performance, kinesiology and recreation, sport management is not yet considered an area of research. This study aims to enlighten the understanding of sport migration in Costa Rica. It is an empirical approach to the current situation of outflow of athletes, trying to describe what are the causes and consequences of the emigrating dynamics regarding sports. According to this purpose, the following research questions were addressed: (1) What are the motivations and goals of Costa Rican sport emigrants, specifically athletes?

(2) What are the characteristics of the Costa Rican emigrating athletes?

and (3) How can these emigrants be categorized based on the existing sport migration typology? The participants include migrant athletes from both genders, from different age groups, representing eight different sports, who traveled to three different continents to practice their sport in pro leagues, amateur teams and US college divisions. As well, the cases include athletes going to countries with different languages, moving with or without family members and some having consecutive migration experiences. The findings show that the main motivations that Costa Rican athletes have to go abroad are sport ambitions, cosmopolitanism and academic factors. Contrary to what is usually expected economic gain doesnt have an important role in the decision-making. The characteristics of these migrant athletes comprise four categories: recruitment process, decision-making, sporting experience and cultural experience. Regarding the categorization of these Costa Rican migrant athletes, the typologies identified were settlers, mercenaries, cosmopolitans and ambitionists, being the later the type that better describes them. Several cases, mostly the female athletes, can be labeled as labour of love, since their motivations go beyond economic gains and are strongly related to the passion and love for the game. Finally, these athletes show to have changing motivations and goals to migrate and to stay abroad, what means they can jump from one category in the typology to another. These changes are going to depend on the evolution of each migration experience. _____________________________________________________________ Keywords: Sport migration, Sport management, Athletes migration, Sport in Costa Rica Student ID: 2015-22362