Student-athlete migration: A systematic literature review

Abstract

AbStRACt Purpose. the continuous migration of student-athletes to pursue their educational and sport careers (i.e., dual career) urges the scientific community to investigate this phenomenon. to provide a systematic literature review on migrating studentathletes, this review framed the research questions, identified relevant scientific contributions, assessed the quality of the studies, summarized evidence, and interpreted the findings. Methods. A systematic review conducted in accordance with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and metaanalyses guidelines returned 1208 records from 2007 to 2019. After screening for the set criteria, only 12 papers met the final inclusion criteria. Results. Few eligible papers highlight limited interest in dual career athletic migration. Furthermore, a lack of a dual career friendly environment supporting the combination of educational (university or high school) and high-level sports opportunities in the native country emerged as the main reason for student-athletes migration. In fact, American colleges, offering optimal opportunities to accomplish education and sport, turned out to be the most represented migration sites, which also satisfy the student-athletes’ desire to attain high-quality education, their willingness to live in another country and to practise sports at high levels. Conclusions. In the context of the pervasive globalization of sport and education, to contribute to the development of the European dual career sports culture, further research is needed to empirically examine the migration phenomenon of European student-athletes in Member States.