Sports and immigration: A symbiotic relationship
Immigration, through sports migration, continues to fortify its status as an effective agglutinating mechanism in a world besieged by wars and hostilities
Symbiosis is a term describing any mutually beneficial relationship or interaction between two different organisms.
In a metaphorical sense, sports and immigration are in a symbiotic relationship because each belongs to a different societal organism — one recreational, the other socio-legal — yet their interactions are bonded by the exigencies of mutualism.
Thus, while the sporting world benefits from the globalization of individual glory and the enhancement of international comity through friendly competitions, in addition to the business upside of promoting universal fandom, immigration, through sports migration, continues to fortify its status as an effective agglutinating mechanism in a world besieged by wars and hostilities.
Take the game of hoops, for example. In the US, the National Basketball Association is already home to a multitude of great American players. Yet, it is not uncommon to see imports from other countries setting foot on America’s hallowed b-ball grounds.
In fact, as of today, 125 international players from 40 countries are on the current NBA rosters, headlined by 26 imports from Canada and 14 from France. The rest originated from Australia, Serbia, Germany, Nigeria, Turkey, Greece, Israel and Africa, among other countries.
But if basketball is a haven for immigration, American baseball is the proverbial heaven to many foreign-born athletes, especially those coming from impoverished Latin American nations.
As of opening day 2023, US Major League Baseball had 269 non-American players on the rosters, representing 19 countries or territories outside the continental US, the vast majority of whom were Latinos.
Most have come from the Dominican Republic (104), followed by Venezuela (62) and Cuba (21). Others have originated from diverse countries such as Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and Africa.
Outside of b-ball and Babe Ruth’s favorite pastime, the boxing world is likewise not immune to sports’ symbiotic relationship with immigration.
Indeed, while the US heavyweight circuits have traditionally been dominated by American boxers, pugilists from such diverse countries as the Philippines, Mexico and Japan have generally populated and reigned supreme in the sport’s lower weight classes.
The symbiotic relationship is also prevalent in other US professional sports, including golf, soccer, hockey and tennis.
Ironically, the dominant alpha male amongst all American sports, the National Football League, had the fewest foreign-born athletes (19) on its payroll as of last season, making it the least symbiotic as far as the sporting world’s interplay with immigration is concerned.
How does the symbiotic fusion come to fruition? First off, the so-called P-1 visa is the most common vector for the symbiotic interaction, through which foreign professional athletes or those with international acclaim or recognition are permitted to come to the US to participate in internationally recognized sporting events or competitions.
P-1 visas are valid for up to five years and can be renewed for another five years.
Secondly, those possessing extraordinary athletic ability who will participate in an international sporting event or competition can also enter the US on an O-1 visa. However, due to its “extraordinary ability” requirement, only individual sports, such as tennis or boxing, can generally host this type of visa.
O-1 visas are initially valid for up to three years but can be renewed indefinitely in oneyear increments.
Lastly, symbiotic assimilation also results when foreign-born players become US permanent residents and eventual US citizens through the employment-based firstpreference immigrant visa (EB-1) category, which is mostly similar to the O-1 visa as far as the “extraordinary ability” requirement is concerned.
Needless to say, the unrelenting pursuit of fame, wealth and glory will keep the symbiotic flames burning in perpetuity.
The symbiotic relationship is also prevalent in other US professional sports, including golf, soccer, hockey and tennis.