Researchers Lis Camelia and Palesa Mashigo, both from the Department of Media en Communication at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, are filming a short documentary, Between Two Shores, that follows Rotterdam's Cabo Verdean and Curaçaoan communities as they celebrate their countries' historic World Cup qualifications. The documentary will be released soon.
For most people, the World Cup conjures images of packed stadiums, waving flags and roaring anthems. But for many in Rotterdam, the tournament is felt just as strongly somewhere else entirely: in living rooms, in barbershops, and in the everyday rituals of the city's diaspora communities.
That is the starting point for Between Two Shores, a new documentary produced by ÃÀÅ®¸£ÀûµçÓ°ÔºÎçÒ¹ researchers Lis Camelia and Palesa Mashigo. The film was conceived to mark the historic qualification of Cabo Verde and Curaçao for the World Cup, and follows Rotterdam's Cabo Verdean, Curaçaoan and Moroccan communities as they mark the occasion in their own way.
"For these communities, putting on a national jersey isn't just about football," the researchers explain. "It's a way of bridging the distance between the countries they call home and the city where they build their lives every day."
Football as a lens on belonging
Camelia and Mashigo's academic work looks broadly at sports culture and its role in wider society, including structural inequality in football and the way sporting narratives shape diasporic belonging. Between Two Shores is, in many ways, a visual extension of that research: an exploration of how multicultural societies shape people's sense of home, and of football's unique power to make that process visible.
Researching race and inclusion in football
The documentary sits alongside a broader research project by Camelia and Mashigo on diversity and inclusion in football, carried out under the supervision of Prof. Dr Jacco van Sterkenburg. The pair's ambition reaches beyond the pitch: they want their findings to help drive change not only among players, but within football boardrooms, where diversity has lagged far behind.
Their work was prompted by recent incidents of racial abuse directed at players of colour, as well as the continued lack of diversity in football's leadership. "Recent events involving racial abuse faced by football players of colour and the lack of diversity in football leadership have, once again, raised concerns around race, racism and inclusion in European football," says Camelia. "This was the impetus for a project like ours: to conduct empirical research into the ways racial discrimination manifests in the football context." Beyond understanding the role of race in the sport, she adds, the project also aims to critically identify the mechanisms that drive both inclusion and exclusion.
Mashigo sees the project as building on, and extending, existing scholarship. "This research builds upon existing literature and is unique in its focus on race and inclusion, through the exploration of diverse themes ranging broadly from the lived experiences of football players to anti-racism media campaigns," she says. The project's partnerships are, in her view, just as important as its academic grounding: "The collaboration between Erasmus, FARE, FIFPRO and UEFA will contribute significantly to the overall research process and its outcomes."
The documentary captures both the quiet, everyday expressions of pride — a Cabo Verdean flag in a local toko, a shirt worn on match day — and the more public, digital forms of connection, as fans cheer on teams playing thousands of kilometres away. Camelia and Mashigo describe both as sites of cultural resilience.
The film also places these celebrations in a wider historical frame, examining local pride alongside the hierarchical systems of inclusion that diaspora communities navigate. By approaching the subject through the lens of colonial and post-colonial history, the researchers hope to show why a football jersey can carry so much meaning — and why it so often comes bundled with a demand for recognition on the world stage.
A Rotterdam with many hearts
Ultimately, Between Two Shores is about what it means to be a "Rotterdammer" with a heart that beats for more than one place. "Belonging is something we negotiate and create every single day," say Camelia and Mashigo. Through their work at ÃÀÅ®¸£ÀûµçÓ°ÔºÎçÒ¹, they hope the documentary will invite viewers to see the city differently: not as a single, fixed identity, but as a vibrant and complex home for people from everywhere.
Between Two Shores is currently in production and will be released soon.
- Researcher
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