The context in question is not the place to question the overall role of sport in children’s lives and public life in general, even if I agree with Johannes that there are critical questions which need to be raised at some point here. Bussing the kids to away matches is a good idea, and it is not utopian, but it would only solve a part of the problem. which is chiefly economic.

Now, Ozma’s suggestion is excellent. Good manners and respect for elders are two of the things many immigrants miss among Norwegian children (and in Norwegian society generally). Like in any unhappy relationship, it takes two to tango, and ethnic Norwegians have clearly not taken the communication problem sufficiently seriously in this case.

I think I’m ready to write that op-ed article now. Before that, however, I have a new blog to write on Savage Minds.

I hear that most Somali men in the USA work; well, in Norway, they don’t have to and they don’t.

Are you absolutely 100% certain that the parents in question have both the time and the resources (a car and enough money for gas) that is required in order to fulfil these “duties”?

And also, woudn’t it be easier in Norway to make the government pay for buses to out-of-town games for all the sports clubs? That would probably be a lot more environmentally friendly anyways (and yes, the snow melting in the beginning of January in Oslo probably is a clear sign that one needs to change ones habits anyways).

It also seems to me like there is a little bit of a one-sided focus changing the behavior of immigrants here – but who says that the Norwegian behavior is sustainable? Rumors have it that it was only the old East Germany and the current Norway that spend enough on sports for it to be a discernable figure on the budget. Is that really a good thing? Is it a good thing that parents spend all their time on trying to turn their kids into professionals of whatever sport? How much pressure is being put onto these kids from their parents? Is this really a “culture” that needs to be supported, or would it maybe be a better idea to make all youth sports in the country turn the pressure a bit down by focusing less on competition and making the parents go home to carry on their own life instead?

And also, for many members of minorities,things like school and group activity with other youngsters are the only places where one can escape the norms and rules that ones parents seem to be caught within, but which oneself can not really see the point in. Now if you have the parents invade the soccer field as well, then that window of freedom is gone as well!

So. This leads me to my suggestion — which might or might not address the problem, since it sounds as if the cause of under-participation by immigrant parents in soccer volunteering is unclear. It would also be a lot of work for an organizer. But: what if at the beginning of each sport season all of the parents received an “invitation” *from the children on the team* (obviously, some grownup would write it, but it would be phrased as from the children) saying something like:

“during the soccer season, we children come to feel as if we are members of one big family and that our teammates are like our sisters and our brothers. Because of this, we want to honor our own parents, and one another’s parents, across the season. Please let us know at which game or games we can look forward to hosting you as “team parents”.

This invitation should be delivered by children, on behalf of their teammates, to parents — rather than laterally extended by some parents to other parents.

I don’t think any parents will be surprised to learn there is a “helping the kids” component to this great honor, but if a little ritual marked the kids showing respect to the parents — say, the kids filing by and shaking the hands of the parents running the soda stand or whatever and thanking them by name before or after the game — it could become a nice little ritual.

Without knowing much about the cultural values of the immigrant populations in question, I am going to hazard a guess that requests phrased in the idiom of fictive kinship — and requests that reinforce something like “youngers respecting elders, and elders helping youngers” might result in a higher yield rate. In effect, having parents share the responsiblity of running games would reinforce good Norwegian values — while the children simultaneously honoring their own and one anothers’ parents at each game would reinforce values held (I am supposing) by immigrants and Norwegians alike.

I hear that most Somali men in the USA work; well, in Norway, they don’t have to and they don’t. “Wagework is not part of their culture”, as anthropologists of the previous generation might explain it. What I’m getting at is that a letter of the kind mentioned by Brad might work in San Francisco, while it might not in Drammen. At any rate, I’ll include the proposition in my article.

In suburban San Francisco, when we sign our children up for after-school sports teams, we must also sign up to do our share of the “volunteer” jobs necessary to make the team run–selling, driving, providing water for games, umpiring, et cetera. There are no sanctions or control mechanisms: nothing happens if you don’t actually show up to do the volunteer job you signed up for. But it does perform the function of making sure that every parent understands what is expected of them by the coach, the team, and the other parents.

What has happened when attempts have been made to make expectations explicit: when immigrant parents are told, “Your child has signed up to play sport X; it is expected that parents of children on the team will…”?