Refugees’ perceptions of sports and physical activity. First results from the SUNDSAM project; a community studies project in a Danish municipality

Studies report a lower health status among refugees compared to the recipient populations in west-ern societies. A significant contribution to this disparity is the waiting time for refugees in the asylum system. If granted asylum in Denmark, many refugees begin their lives in a Danish municipality in a state of health, which might negatively affect their process of settling. Sports and physical activity have been found to be an important element of health promotion. Thus, several sports and physical activity programmes have been initiated to facilitate refugees’ health promotion and integration into the new host society. However, these programmes are often not aligned with the backgrounds and narratives of specific groups of refugees. In addition, scarce transnational research has been con-ducted on refugees’ experiences with and perspectives on sports and physical activity. The first phase of the SUNDSAM project, seeks to gather knowledge about how refugees have experienced and currently approach sports and physical activity initiatives. Data is collected through focus group interviews at the mandatory Danish language schools. Participants will be refugees granted asylum in Denmark in the last three years. The results will be ready for presentation in the autumn of 2018. The results will later form the background of a community studies project aiming at supporting refu-gees to participate in sports and physical activities that are meaningful to them.