Migration, Displacement, and Refugees: Sport Identity among Second-Generation South Asian Immigrant Adolescents

Background and Significance: Second-generation South Asian immigrant adolescents in Hong Kong, born to families from India, Pakistan, and Nepal, represent a growing yet marginalised minority of over 50,000 youth. Despite being local-born citizens, they experience persistent linguistic exclusion, racial discrimination, intense academic pressure, and restricted access to organised leisure, resulting in significantly lower sport participation, higher sedentary behaviour, elevated obesity rates, and poorer mental health outcomes compared to Chinese-majority peers. Sport is widely recognised internationally as a key site for identity negotiation, social integration, and resilience among migrant-background youth, yet this potential remains largely untapped and under-researched in Hong Kong’s super-diverse urban context.

Research Gap: While global literature highlights sport’s integrative power for first-generation migrant youth, second-generation adolescents in Asian global cities have received almost no attention. In particular, little is known about how psychological and socio-environmental factors interact to shape sport identity and sport participation among ethnic minority adolescent navigating hybrid cultural identities in a highly competitive, exam-oriented society.

Research Objectives and Questions: This study examines how psychological factors (task orientation, perceived sport competence, and relative autonomy) and socio-environmental factors (peer influence, culturally responsive coaching, and teacher facilitation) influence sport identity formation and long-term sport participation among second-generation South Asian adolescents aged 12–15 in Hong Kong. A central question is the extent to which sport identity mediates these relationships and can be deliberately strengthened through targeted intervention.

Theoretical Framework: The research integrates socio-ecological perspectives on youth development with identity theory, conceptualising sport identity as a pivotal mediator that transforms transient motivation into enduring engagement, with particular attention to how cultural hybridity and minority status moderate these processes.

Methodology:A sequential mixed-methods design will be employed. Phase 1 uses structural equation modelling with approximately 300–350 adolescents and validated instruments to test predictive and mediated pathways. Phase 2 develops and pilot-tests a 12-week school-based organised-sport intervention that deliberately enhances perceived competence, autonomy support, inclusive peer climates, and teacher/coach cultural responsiveness, measured through objective accelerometry and repeated psychosocial assessments.

Expected Contribution and Policy Implications: The study will produce an evidence-based, culturally responsive intervention model that can be scaled by education and leisure authorities to increase sport engagement and promote physical and mental health equity among ethnic minority adolescents. By illuminating sport identity as a malleable mechanism of integration, it offers new theoretical insight into second-generation migrant adolescence while providing actionable policy pathways for building genuinely inclusive cities in Asia and beyond.