Religions and sports: Are they resources for the integration of immigrants in a multiethnic society?

The social integration of the immigrants is a multi-facets topic, so that it needs to be studied using a multidimensional approach and operationalising the main concepts carefully. This paper gives relevance to the socio-cultural dimension; it questions if religions, and sports and exercise, can give a positive contribution to this social process. The Author reviews the main empirical researches, carried out so far in Italy and in the European Countries; his hypothesis is that these institutions are positive resources, almost invisible but socially relevant, for the social integration of the not-EU immigrants. Indeed he suggests that a scholar has to distinguish both the type of religion/of sport and exercise, and the type of place and of chances in it offered. Finally this paper offers some observations about the effects of the politics for social integration by sports, which some European countries adopted in last years.