SPORTS - A SOCIAL INTEGRATION FACTOR IN A MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Sport is one of the most dynamic social activities aimed at improving the human being in all aspects. In a world of political change and socio-economic transformations, different religions, multiple cultures and ethnicities sports can be a universal communication language understood by the whole world. It is well known the beneficial influences of practicing sport. However accession to the beneficial influence requires time, continuity, and not least of direction by a specialist in sports. But often it has been forgotten that sports has a very dynamic social side. The social side of the sports is highlighted best in his integrative force. So we want to present the sport as a factor of social integration in multicultural environments with practical examples from the European Union. At the same time we want to present some results from the research conducted to study sports in multicultural environments (in this case the city of Cluj-Napoca), but also the effect of sports on individual integration in a multicultural group.