EDU Resources
Expand the knowledge of your students about migration and its push and pull factors through the example of football.
In this article:
COVER Image
Coming to America; Returning for a Visit (Source: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. Richardson & Cox, 1854).
Migration through the prism of football
What are the push and pull factors of migration? Is football migration any different from general migration? With the help of this learning activity, students will be able to answer these questions and learn about human migration around the world. Using movements of football players as an example of the phenomenon, pupils will be able to identify the factors that caused them to migrate. Through individual work on informative worksheets and engaging class discussions, this lesson plan allows the students to find the relationship between migration and football and expand their understanding of migration as a whole.
Igor Jovanovic, developer of the learning activity:
The teaching activity is designed to connect migrations and football and to show that football migrations and migrations of football players can be connected with migrations and migratory movements.
Also, this teaching activity can in an interesting way connect the migrations of football players with general push and pull factors and prove that the migrations of football players have similar causes with other causes of human migrations and push and pull factors.
What can we learn from football migration?
Through a brainstorming session, allow students to structure what they already know about migration. Deepen their knowledge by explaining what are the push and pull factors, and how are they different between football migration and migration in general. Engaging discussion using everyday examples will allow the students to broaden their vocabulary relating to migration movements. In classrooms of football enthusiasts, this topic can bring up the discussion about the disadvantages of football migration and the concept of club loyalty in the modern era.
This activity is also useful for students with little prior knowledge about football or migration related to it. Designed for school children aged between 14 and 16 years old, this activity can be used as a fun and exciting way to kick off a class or a module about the phenomenon of migration. To make it even easier for students to understand, this lesson plan can be easily adapted to a national context: just use an example of a local footballer playing in a different country and explore the reasons he/she might have left. Alternatively, the activity can be used to compare migration patterns in different countries.
Practising inclusion and understanding:
Use this activity if you teach students that:
- are between 14 and 16 years old;
- are having a class or module about migration;
- are learning about migration push and pull factors;
- would benefit from broadening their vocabulary on migration.
Access the learning activity
Find and use the educational resource “Understanding migration’s push and pull factors” on Historiana. More activities about migration and its push and pull factors can be found by typing “migration” in the Learning Activities’ search bar on Historiana. This learning activity has been developed by the Football Makes History team member and history teacher Igor Jovanovic.
RELATED STORIES You may also be interested in
Have World Cup Team become more diverse over time?
Researchers of the Sport and Nation Programme at Erasmus University Rotterdam conducted an analysis on 4.761 footballers, derived from the fifteen national teams that competed in at least ten editions of the World Cup between 1930 and 2018, which comprises of 301 foreign-born football players.
The Right to Play
We made this documentary about the Milan-based football club St Ambreous. This is the story of why we wanted to retell this story, and how we did it.
Refugees
In the wake of the 2015 migration peak, activists and volunteers across Europe have been involved in supporting refugees, sometimes with the simple act of offering space and friendship to participate in football through grassroots clubs to help newcomers integrate.

Latest Educational Resouces

Multiculturalism and representations of national identity
Teach students about questions of identity, citizenship and multiculturalism by looking at national football teams across Western Europe.

Should we always blame someone when something goes wrong?
Help your students develop social and civic competences by using examples of events in football history.

Football as a portal to French colonial history
Learn about colonialism and migration by tracing the origins of French football players.

Disappearing from football and the world
Analyse and connect historical sources to learn about Italian fascism and the history of Europe in late 1930s – early 1940s.
Multiculturalism and representations of national identity
Teach students about questions of identity, citizenship and multiculturalism by looking at national football teams across Western Europe.
Should we always blame someone when something goes wrong?
Help your students develop social and civic competences by using examples of events in football history.
Football as a portal to French colonial history
Learn about colonialism and migration by tracing the origins of French football players.
Disappearing from football and the world
Analyse and connect historical sources to learn about Italian fascism and the history of Europe in late 1930s – early 1940s.
LATEST POST You may also be interested in

Multiculturalism and representations of national identity
Teach students about questions of identity, citizenship and multiculturalism by looking at national football teams across Western Europe.

When football went viral
On this day in 2020, Atalanta Bergamo hosted Valencia in a final-16 Champions League match. It was a superspreading event of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Should we always blame someone when something goes wrong?
Help your students develop social and civic competences by using examples of events in football history.

World War 1 in one life
A story of a professional footballer who died at the battle of the Somme in 1916.

Football as a portal to French colonial history
Learn about colonialism and migration by tracing the origins of French football players.

Remembering the Holocaust through Football
Today, 27 January, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Educators can use the life stories of footballers to explore this painful past with the students.