Identifying and Prioritizing Factors Affecting Immigration of Elite athletes in Iran

The emigration of sport elites and professionals as a social phenomenon has a detrimental effect on the process of sport development. The purpose of this work was to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the emigration of elite athletes in Iran.

This study was a mix-method research work that was executed in the qualitative and quantitative steps. In the first step, the data was collected through 8 semi-structured interviews (with athletes immigrating or intending to immigrate) as well as analysis of the documents and literature; the result of this step was a list of athletes’ emigration reasons including the four categories of economic, political, social, and professional factors. In the next step, in order to determine the importance and priority of each factor, a questionnaire was developed based on the BWM multi-criteria decision-making method and distributed among 10 national athletes that were selected by a judgment sampling.

Analysis of the data showed that the economic factors such as "access better job opportunities" and "difference in welfare status between the country of origin and destination" are the most important reasons for the migration of athletes. The professional factors such as “access to facilities and coaches” and “the lack of planning in federations”; the political factors such as “the inefficiency of the management system in macro-level” and “the influence of political orientations on sport”; and the social factors such as “the social status of athletes” and “the tendency toward modern life” were in the next priorities.

The main part of the economic, political, and social problems affecting the immigration athletes’ decision is related to the macro-level; however, at the mid-level, the sports managers can improve the professional conditions for athletes’ motivation to stay in the country. This can be done with developing the organized leagues, designing, and implementing plans to develop basic levels, providing the facilities, recruiting experienced internal and external coaches, and employing capable athletes and coaches in operating the plans