120 Ethnic sorting in football to be the key findings of this dissertation. I will then move on to discuss several aspects of the research in more detail. Firstly, I discuss a number of theoretical considerations in relation to my research. Next, I will discuss a number of methodological strengths and limitations of my research design. This is followed up by a section in which I will reflect on the social implications of my findings. Finally, I propose several lessons and avenues for further research. 6.1 Main findings More minorities among members, but differences between groups Let me begin by outlining the findings of each of the four empirical chapters of this dissertation. In chapter 2, I asked the following question: ‘To what extent is Dutch amateur football an ethnic reflection of the Dutch population and what factors best explain differences in participation between ethnic groups?’ Firstly, the results in this chapter demonstrated that the number of members with a migration background has steadily increased over time, mirroring a trend in the overall Dutch population. Overall, membership of citizens with migrant backgrounds remains to lag behind that of citizens with Dutch backgrounds. When members with migrant backgrounds were broken down into eleven distinct groups, this revealed strong differences in membership rates. In multiple instances, memberships rates for specific backgrounds surpass those of members with Dutch backgrounds, which is at odds with what we know of (sports) association membership in general. Furthermore, ethnic differences in membership rates did not seem to align well with traditional explanations for disparities such as a lack of resources or exclusion. This suggests that ethnic groups also differ in their preference to be involved in (certain) organized sports. Gravitating to ethnic peers In chapter 3 I took a closer look at how members of six different backgrounds spread over clubs. The research question that guided this study was: ‘To what extent and in what way are ethnic groups within the Netherlands unequally distributed over amateur football clubs?’ The results demonstrated that citizens tend to have membership ties to football clubs who have a higher-than-average share of members with the same ethnic background. This leads to substantial
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