Something that surprised me that is tangentially related to sports is how Clarkston, Georgia, is a city essentially made up of refugees and people from other countries. It was interesting how it’s so close to Atlanta, yet many people who have lived in Georgia their entire lives do not know it exists. When I was reporting a story of multiplatform, I found out that the Clarkston High School cross country team is about 90 percent refugees, which surprised me quite a bit and allowed me to fully grasp the demographic makeup of the high school. Then, a week ago I did research on the Fugees Family soccer program also in that area. That sparked a couple questions that I’m curious about looking into: How do sports play a role in refugee resettlement? Are there similar teams in other parts of the United States? And a bigger question about the refugee crisis in general, why Clarkston? I’ve done some research on this in the past, but I’d like to look at this community as a whole and see what led to this decision. I’m also interested to see what the community’s outlook is on sports.
I read this story last week that solely focuses on the Fugees Family and the mission of the team. It also looked into the struggles and pasts of individual members of the team and how that lingers in their day-to-day life in the United States. This article gives a broader look at the city of Clarkston and offered a bit more background information about how this town became a hub for refugee resettlement.