Multicultural common spaces: A study of Canadian hockey arenas and social integration 

Project summary 

The research objective was to assess whether the game of hockey, and its associated social spaces, contributes to the social integration of immigrants and racialized minorities in Canada? This research assesses whether the game of hockey provides for multicultural common spaces where interactive pluralism occurs and enables a sense of Canadian identity and belonging for immigrants and racialized minorities as part of their integration (See Figure A in Appendix A). 

The conclusion is that for most immigrants and racialized minorities, who are directly engaged in the game of hockey in some capacity (such as players, parents of players, hockey fans), there is a moderate to strong association of hockey with Canadian national identity and a sense of belonging. However, there are obstacles such as racism in hockey. The social spaces of hockey1 are very much a contested terrain where immigrants’ and racialized people’s agency and participation can still forge a sense of national identity and belonging in spite of the specter of racism. There is a Janus-faced nature to the game of hockey which includes both inclusion and exclusion.  

Research methods 

Multi-qualitative methods were used and involved structured observations in hockey arenas and face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured personal interviews in the cities of Halifax, Toronto and Calgary. Data were collected during the hockey seasons of 2018/19 and 2019/20 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The planned resumption to finish the data collection for the next two hockey seasons failed due to the continuation of Covid and a decision was made in early 2022 to conduct analysis of the data on hand.  

The total data collected include 55 structured observations and 143 interviewees. The participants were hockey players, hockey fans, and key-informants. The hockey players included youth and adults involved in organized hockey, while the hockey fans were adults, many of whom were parents of hockey players. Key-informants were those knowledgeable about hockey such as coaches and authors of hockey books. 

The participants’ demographic characteristics include 106 (74 %) males and 37 (26%) females with ages ranging from 11 to 79 years old and a median age of 35 years. Of the 143 participants, 39% were visible minorities and 60% were Caucasian while 28% were immigrants and 71% were Canadian-born. 

The semi-structured interview questions pertaining to identity were: i) Has playing hockey helped you identify yourself as a Canadian? ii) Has watching the game of hockey in arenas helped you identify yourself as a Canadian? and iii) Do you think the game of hockey helps newcomers and minorities to identify themselves as Canadians. The key questions pertaining to a sense of belonging were: i) Has playing hockey helped give you a sense of belonging to Canada? ii) Has watching the game of hockey in arenas helped give you a sense of belonging to Canada? and iii) Do you think the game of hockey helps newcomers and minorities develop a sense of belonging to Canada? Further, the topic of barriers to engaging in hockey were addressed and included the following the question: Do you feel that there are barriers to playing organized hockey in Canada? If yes, what are they? 

Research results 

Key Findings 

National Identity Via Hockey 

Overall 86% of participants indicated that hockey contributes to their Canadian identity, however, 95% of immigrants felt this way compared to 82% of the Canadian-born (Table 1, Figure 1, Appendix A). With respect to visible minority status the findings are similar as 91% of visible minorities felt that hockey contributes to Canadian identity compared to 81% of Whites (Table 2, Figure 2). In both cases more immigrants and visible minorities2, than Canadian-born and Whites, felt that hockey contributes to Canadian identity. The following quote from a 30-year old male Mexican immigrant living in Calgary illustrates this point:  

Juan: Oh yeah, that’s the first time I felt Canadian.… I think there’s something special where people are singing their national anthem before every…the Canadian national anthem before every sports game. It’s just a nice reminder.… Just remind everybody who they are and where you are kind of thing, especially when you come from abroad. It’s a nice touch.

Sense of Belonging Through Hockey 

Overall 55% of the participants indicated that hockey contributes to their sense of belonging to Canada which is a smaller percentage than the 86% who indicated that hockey contributes to a sense of Canadian identity. However, when broken down by nativity, 80% of immigrants felt this way compared to only 45% of the Canadian-born (Table 3, Figure 3). This large difference can be explained by the fact that the Canadian-born were more likely to take “belonging to Canada” for granted as a birthright. With respect to visible minority status 73% of visible minorities felt that hockey contributes to their sense of belonging compared to only 42% of whites (Table 4, Figure 4). The following quote from a hockey fan, and a host for the Calgary Flames, who is a male Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong in his late 30s, illustrates this point:  

Brian: Yeah, it’s (hockey) a common language. Being in different workplaces that I’ve been in, pretty mainstream as well, when we talk about hockey, it becomes a common language, right? It’s just like you wouldn’t feel the barriers, right – different colours of skins of people and we came together…  

If you talk to people in North America, they understand this is Canada’s game. They know that. If they could have that sense of belonging where they have a professional team playing well in the city and they can call the players by their names and know what they do, all the back stories, all the personal stories, it’s their common language…I think the conversation is in the community. You’re going to the rink, it’s very multicultural – very multicultural, right? Whether they see them as immigrants or not, I don’t know, but they come together to a common platform to cheer for something that… I think a sense of belonging would be number one. 

See Appendix B for additional quotations illustrating national identity and sense of belonging.

Barriers to Participation in Hockey 

85% of the participants indicated that there were barriers to playing organized hockey with the following barriers being the most frequent: 1) economic (48%); 2) racism (41%); 3) time and commitment (15%) ; 4) sexism (13%); and 5) accessibility  (12%) (See Figure 5). 

Not surprisingly economic barriers were identified the most. The financial costs of playing minor hockey range from $15,000 per year for a small number top tier elite players3 to $1,666 per year for others playing at the non-elite levels4. A significant finding is that there was virtually no difference between immigrants and the Canadian-born, nor between visible minorities and whites, in terms of identifying economic barriers as they are class-based. Secondly, and also not surprisingly, racism was the second most identified barrier. This identified barrier has emerged very prominently over the last decade in Canada and there have been a few scattered programmatic and policy proposals to try to address this barrier5. While the other barriers were identified considerable less they are nevertheless very important ones, such as the barrier of sexism. 

Conclusion 

The engagement in hockey by immigrants and visible minorities facilitates their integration into Canadian society via multicultural common spaces that enhance their Canadian social identity and sense of belonging to Canada. The barriers to engagement in hockey, such as financial cost and racism, need to be addressed.  

 Policy and program implications 

In an increasingly diverse Canada the sport of hockey needs growing as it contributes to social integration. Hockey will grow if it becomes progressively more inclusionary and the exclusionary practices of classism, racism and sexism are reduced or eliminated. With such growth comes increasing Canadian national identity and a sense of belonging for immigrants and racialized persons who participate. The following are some policy and program recommendations which would enable greater interactive pluralism in hockey. 

1. The recent corporate initiatives to make hockey more inclusionary should be lauded and further encouraged by Sport Canada6. Moreover, Sport Canada might want to consider co-sponsoring such programs. 
2. The few existing and successful community level programs in Canada that help immigrant youth participate in hockey could be modelled on a much larger scale and promoted throughout Canada in cities with relatively high concentrations of immigrant and racialized youth. Two potential programs that could be modelled, as best practices, include the Hockey 4 Youth program in Toronto and the FHL (Football Hockey Link) in Calgary. Either Sport Canada, or perhaps Hockey Canada, could take on this programmatic initiative. 
3. Diversity policy initiatives, at all segments and levels of leadership in organized hockey, need to be implemented and these would include at the grassroots level of community and city minor hockey associations, provincial/territorial hockey associations and federations, as well as Hockey Canada itself. Also, diversity initiatives for hockey positions such as coaches and managers, would facilitate greater inclusion. Sport Canada could very well be the catalyst for these types of policy initiatives. 
4. The financial costs of playing hockey for Canadian youth could be reduced by the state (municipal, provincial, federal) through the subsidization of hockey arenas at the community level for minor hockey associations. 
5. Finally, and perhaps very controversially, the federal government could implement a “hockey tax credit” for lower income Canadians to offset the high costs for families with children playing hockey. This type of tax credit would be rationalized by the fact that hockey is deemed, via federal legislation, as Canada’s official winter sport, in distinction from other sports. 

Next steps 

How effective are the current equity, diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives in hockey in promoting or enabling interactive pluralism?  

How can the various potential social change agents in hockey be organized and integrated systemically and holistically, to develop an overarching strategy to eliminate racism in hockey? These social agents would include, among others, the following: Sport Canada, other federal government departments, other levels of government, corporate sponsors, minor league hockey associations, the NHL, and the sports media.  

Knowledge translation  

The current strategy for knowledge translation includes the writing of academic manuscripts based on the findings. Other strategies are in the planning stages at this point. 

Download this report and view the appendices here.

Appendix A: Figures and Tables 

Figure A. Interactive Pluralism Vs. Fragmented Pluralism 

TABLE 1. Hockey Contributes to Canadian Identity by Nativity

FIGURE 1. Hockey Contributes to Canadian Identity by Nativity 

TABLE 2. Hockey Contributes to Canadian Identity by Visible Minority Status 

FIGURE 2. Hockey Contributes to Canadian Identity by Visible Minority Status 

TABLE 3. Hockey Contributes to Sense of Belonging by Nativity 

*also includes no response or ambivalent answer e (maximum difference) = 35 percentage points = strong relationship

FIGURE 3. Hockey Contributes to Sense of Belonging by Nativity 

TABLE 4. Hockey Contributes to Sense of Belonging by Visible Minority Status

FIGURE 4. Hockey Contributes to Sense of Belonging by Visible Minority Status 

FIGURE 5. Identified Barriers to Participation in Hockey