5.1 Private Business, Public Space

Laura visits my apartment a week later. These conversations have made me reconsider, she says and continues to describe her image of these people when she lived in Romania. When she first saw them here she dismissed them, but now that they’ve spoken with each other she is “touched” – she and I speak English with each other. She wants to continue, she wants to know more. On the subway, on our way out to Högdalen, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Stockholm, she tells me that she understands their codes, both things that they say and their gestures. This time we have other questions. After a greeting ceremony and an exchange of cigarettes Laura starts talking with them. This time she translates directly to me. I can’t film, but we get to record the sound. I hold the camera under my arm with the lens pointed down.

Laura: What do you think a Swedish person needs to understand about your situation, why is this happening?

George: I tell you what’s happening – people tend to follow each other like sheep. For example, I used to know some guys, they went to France with 60 Euro in their pocket (the plane ticket), they stayed there for two weeks, whatever they were doing, they came back home with 320 Euro in their pockets. People see this and what do they think – “Let’s go there too, it’s better, we could find work, make some money”… one after another…

L: How did you find this place and make it your home? Did you search for a long time?

[Young man]: We found it quite hard, but it’s a very good spot. We take this path through the forest and get out directly at the train station.

[Woman]: We live in these huts, what can we do…

L: And in winter?

[Group]: The same. Yes.

[Woman]: The rents are too expensive. How could we have that kind of money? We go and beg, the men search for work. They work as day laborers in constructions, pavement…

L: How is it in comparison to Romania?

[Woman]: It’s better. Don’t you know the situation in Romania? It’s become a laughingstock, good for nothing. Some can manage, but three-quarters of the Romanians are gone. In Romania we lost our jobs, we have nowhere to go, no work. You cannot even find hourly work, you could at least work with digging the ground before, at least it was something.

G: Don’t film me, I don’t want to spread rumors in Romania… YouTube… Maybe somebody sent you? … Actually it would be good for somebody to help us, speak for us, at least to help some of us to go back home, or give us work… I see they give work to others, Arabs for example, Moroccans, they bring them to social centers, give them homes, and us… They hear we’re Romanians – since we have a European visa and can come and leave whenever we want, they don’t give us any chance to get work. They’re very racist with us. Some Swedish people help us by giving us half a Euro or a Euro, something to eat, but it’s hopeless as long as the rest leave us aside, ignore us. ☞

One day while I’m having lunch with my best friend I suddenly burst into tears. He’s surprised and asks why. I try to pinpoint various causes but can’t come up with anything that feels true and hits the mark. He doesn’t understand and creates his own explanation having to do with X being mean to me. The next day I figure it out, it’s about the film recordings I did that week: Encounters with the people begging on Götgatan in Stockholm and in their encampments in Högdalen. The interpreter Laura and I did a lot of interviews, talked to people and tried to understand why they come to Sweden to beg, but above all: How do they envision success and how are they treated? Simply: How is it working out for them? What are they thinking and feeling? How are they acting? What does their existence look like? These recordings affected me deeply and made me look at my own life, made me feel the fear of the unknown, the dirty, the difficult, the miserable. Next to them I appeared incredibly successful, clean, well dressed – I didn’t feel guilt, it was something else, sorrow.

I’m faced with a system that – like most systems, or is it the same system the world over – causes people to resort to begging. The begging person is not what renders me powerless it’s not about being faced with the other, that’s not the main problem. When there’s an outstretched hand I see people give food, clothes, money, cans, gloves, strawberries… Grasping the totality of the situation is what overwhelms me, I can’t handle it.

Political scientist Bo Rothstein published an op-ed piece in Dagens Nyheter on December 28, 2013.⁶⁾Bo Rothstein, “Därför bör vi göra det förbjudet att ge till tiggare”, December 28, 2013. Accessed April 27, 2016, www.dn.se/debatt/darfor-bor-vi-gora-det-forbjudet-att-ge-till-tiggare. He proposes a new law, a ban on giving to beggars. He is convinced that a “ban on giving to panhandlers would force more comprehensive structural aid into being to assist this vulnerable group.” And he claims that: “a ban must be followed by some form of sanctions if it is to be at all effective, to punish these highly vulnerable, marginalized and obviously distressed people is at odds with our humanity and sense of justice. Yet it must be clear that further charity and continued panhandling can’t be the solution to these people’s social misery.”

I read the 129 comments on Rothstein’s article on the Dagens Nyheter website. One of them reads: “The beggar who asks for charity needs this in order to meet their fundamental human needs for the day, such as food. Isn’t it a bit harsh to stand by and watch the individual beggar starve, for the simple reason that I as a citizen of means think this the best way to catch the attention of politicians?” (masse: 09;42, December 28, 2013)

Is there any historical basis for necessity forcing justice into being when it comes to poverty? Or is that wishful thinking, an ideological construct? If giving becomes a crime, will society take responsibility for giving, or not? How should the line between philanthropy, solidarity, and welfare be drawn? These seem to be the questions that Rothstein wants to pose, or rather provoke. “One could also view the person who gives to panhandlers as someone who contributes to the social subjugation and humiliation of another person in order to fill some kind of need to feel righteous.” Rothstein wants to discuss giving, how it should work. As an activity begging presupposes a corresponding activity – giving. This is where it gets interesting, but unfortunately Rothstein gets overshadowed in the media, neither the public nor the media are interested in continuing that discussion.

How should the law – if such a proposal were to be enforced in practice – nail down what begging is? A line is drawn here between the giver and the person begging. What happens to individual responsibility for individual actions if the contact between the person giving and the person begging becomes regulated by law? Isn’t each person free to choose whom to give to? These lines of inquiry show how complex the situation is.

Further Rothstein writes: “Just as the person who ever so generously pays a sex worker (and perhaps treats them well) is still considered at fault, the person who contributes to the continued social humiliation that panhandling is must also be considered at fault.” When he draws a parallel to the ban on buying sexual favors, the law that was put in place in 1999, he doesn’t seem to distinguish between buying a sexual favor and giving to a begging person. This may seem a bit extreme, but perhaps this question must be asked, the question about the intent of the act of giving: What reasons drive a buyer of sex, what reasons drive one to give to a begging person? ☞

Susanna Alakoski describes politics as a craft and “democracy [as] a practice anchored in people’s daily social life.”⁸⁾Susanna Alakoski, Oktober i fattigsverige, (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 2012), 178. She reminds the reader that nobody is poor voluntarily and that poverty is a political condition.⁹⁾Ibid., 178. The 28 EU member states have a population of more than 500 million inhabitants. In 2013 Eurostat publishes information indicating that 115 million people are estimated to be at risk of poverty and social exclusion.¹⁰⁾In 2013 the number was 22.9%. Females 24% and Males 21.6%. See top row of the table: “European Union (28 countries)”, “People at risk of poverty or social exclusion by broad group of citizenship (population aged 18 and over)”, Demography report – 2015 edition, last updated July 14, 2016. Accessed April 27, 2016, http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_peps05&lang=en. Susanna Alakoski has a formula for how things may go if all responsibility is put on the individual to help their fellow human. “Charity = the state minus responsibility.”¹¹⁾Alakoski, 151.

In his work Enjoy Poverty¹⁶⁾Renzo Martens is an artist currently living and working Brussels, Amsterdam, and Kinshasa. Martens made a name for himself with his controversial documentaries Episode I (2003) and Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008). In 2010 Renzo Martens founded the Institute for Human Activities (IHA), which initiated a gentrification program in the Congolese rainforest.
——Episode III, also known as Enjoy Poverty is a 90-minute documentary film of Renzo Martens’ work in the Congo. In an epic journey the film establishes that images of poverty are the most lucrative export in the Congo, these generate more income than traditional exports such as gold, diamonds, or cacao. The project website reads: “Amidst ethnic war and relentless economic exploitation, Martens sets up an emancipation program that aims to teach the poor how to benefit from their biggest resource: poverty. Thus, Congolese photographers are encouraged to move on from development-hindering activities, such as photographing weddings and parties, and to start taking images of war and disaster.” But just as with the traditional exports, the humans who provide the raw material – “the poor being filmed, hardly benefit from it at all.” Renzo Martens, “Episode III”. Accessed August 1, 2016, http://www.renzomartens.com/episode3/film. artist Renzo Martens addresses the ways in which the philanthropic industry (nonprofit industry) perpetuates a colonial power structure. He also gives concrete, though ironic, suggestions for how impoverished people can change their situation, how their view and photos of their own situation could become part of the image production that currently lies in the hands of Western interests. Among other things the film shows his attempts to educate photographers in the Congo. His pedagogical attempts fail. In the film the attempts come across as questioning whether those who make money from publishing images really have any interest in changing the prevailing power structure. Martens stages a thesis, but when it comes to image production it seems doubtful that he really is pushing his thesis with, for example, the buyers at media companies and reportage magazines. So Martens isn’t very successful in changing the situation of the poor, but he does succeed in showing me and other people in his audience how documentation of others can perpetuate existing power structures despite the intent to educate; how the Congo is still in a colonial vise; and how complicated philanthropy is, as it can completely miss the mark and even hinder those it aims to help.

So how free are artists, journalists, and others who transmit images of people who are poor or vulnerable in other ways? Renzo Martens exposes how the aesthetics, the Western world’s image mediation of the poor person in the Third World, are part of the matrix. Martens’ film has sparked discussions in various art forums where people are alternately angered by his cynicism and admiring of the rhetoric that mirrors a colonial power structure. In my opinion he pinpoints an objectifying and colonial attitude by suggesting that the object/the other speak and claim the space to share their own narrative, rather than having an interpreter/photographer who describes and takes photos of them.

Martens says of his film Enjoy Poverty: “Most documentary films critique, or reveal, or show some outside phenomenon, like “‘oh this is bad,’ or ‘this is good’, or ‘this is tragic’. In this film, it is not the subject that is tragic, like poverty in Africa, it is the very way that the film deals with the subject that is as tragic. So that’s why it’s a piece of art, because it deals with its own presence, it deals with its own terms and conditions, it’s not a referential piece, it’s autoreferential.”¹⁷⁾This quote of Renzo Martens can be found in the discussion when Erik Pauser makes his second interjection. Maria Eriksson Baaz, Erik Pauser, Mats Rosengren, and Elin Wikström, “Enjoying poverty?”. Accessed April 12, 2016, http://app.samladeskrifter.se/article/12. Martens appears in the film himself, he films himself in a colonial khaki outfit, on a safari with porters behind him, he also has himself filmed as he teaches photography to a group of people. His point is that the film is art precisely because it deals with its own presence – how it was produced and the conditions for it. Martens also says: “My film is yet another industry that doesn’t help the poor.”¹⁸⁾The quote is in the epigraph of Ord & Bild, January 18, 2014. Accessed May 12, 2016, http://app.samladeskrifter.se/article/12. He is highly aware that he’s as stuck in the system as everybody else. With the film he “leaves it” to the viewer to identify with either him, in the role he plays in the film with fruitless attempts to find a solution and justice both for the poor people and for his own participation – or stand outside.

Watching Enjoy Poverty is frustrating, it’s challenging, because nobody can escape the system, there is no redemption. Part of my sense of powerlessness – that I’ve also experienced in several of my previous works – lies in this insight and the possibility I still have of exposing something of this matrix of aesthetics. Is it possible to see through the images that we base our discussions on? The images produced by the Westerner, by the Congolese, by perpetrators versus victims and other images that have become signifiers, stereotypes. ☞

The author Katarina Taikon was Romani, she was born in a tent outside the Swedish town of Örebro in 1932. She made it her life’s work to change the view of Roma in Sweden: the prevailing, ingrained notion that they neither could nor wanted to live within the framework of modern society. Together with other activists and cultural figures she succeeded in evacuating the tent encampments that they lived in and pushed through the right to schooling. She never accused the welfare system, she never pinned the guilt on those who owned and had, her goal was simply to include everyone in Swedish society: In justice, in the law, and in the communal narrative, thoughts, images, ways of seeing and in the glance from one human to another on the street.

In 1968 activists and cultural workers – Katarina Taikon among others – write in the journal Zigenaren [The Gypsy], about “The racial biology of the 1920s, about Per Albin Hansson’s support for scientific racism, about the desire of Swedish authorities at the time to rid themselves of Roma, the immigration ban, Nazism in Germany, about the deportations and the group of Norwegian Roma who were denied entrance to Norway and later were found among the dead in the camps. The editors saw a direct connection between the more socially acceptable Nationalism and the Fascist crimes from the 1930s and onward.”²⁸⁾Lawen Mohtadi, Den dag jag blir fri: En bok om Katarina Taikon, (Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, 2012), 158.

“The void that Katarina Taikon faced when she read about human rights is a void that’s persisted over the years. Since then many of us have stared into that void in a similar way: The gap between the idea that racism doesn’t exist in Sweden and our lived realities.”²⁹⁾Karolina Ramqvist, “‘Zigenerska’ var början på en lång kamp”, Dagens Nyheter, December 25, 2015. Accessed April 27, 2016, www.dn.se/dnbok/zigenerska-var-borjan-pa-en-lang-kamp. So writes Karolina Ramqvist. The tendency to make poor people in need of protection out to be greedy, spoiled Roma, can still be found today in the displacements that happen across European borders. ☞

Culturally and socio-politically conditioned views, ways of seeing that create norms through systematic use – framing – become restrictions for what can be heard, read, seen, perceived, and known. In Judith Butler’s words: “This ‘not seeing’ in the midst of seeing, this not seeing is the condition of seeing, has become the visual norm, and it is that norm that is a national norm, one conducted by the photographic frame in the scene of torture. In this case the circulation of the image outside the scene of its production has broken up the mechanisms of disavowal, scattering grief and outrage in its wake.”³⁸⁾Judith Butler, “Torture and the Ethics of Photography: Thinking with Sontag”, Frames of War, (New York: Verso 2009), 100. Butler is referring to the photos of torture taken at Abu Ghraib, one of Saddam Hussein’s infamous prisons in Baghdad which the U.S. Army in 2003 turned into their biggest prison camp in occupied Iraq. The images were taken by American soldiers as they humiliated and tortured Iraqi prisoners and were then spread across the world. These images have come to symbolize the war in Iraq. In a book by Philip Gourevitch, Lyndie England who appears in the photos says: “Photos don’t matter one way or another in a war. It’s all so stupid. I mean, why does the government think I’m the bad guy? The government puts the blame on me just because they can – just like a decoy.” (Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris, Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story. (London: Picador, 2008) Philip Gourevitch collaborated with filmmaker Errol Morris who made hundreds of hours of interviews for his documentary Standard Operating Procedure, 2008. The white paper constitutes a vindication of the Roma. But it is only the beginning. It means that all citizens must change something, rephrase something, express something different verbally and physically. Without an acknowledgement that idea, that image doesn’t exist. Acknowledgement is given to someone. Acknowledgement is also the acceptance of someone.

After the government published the white paper the phrase the Roma who come here to beg became more common to denote those who beg, as did variations thereof such as Romanian Roma who beg, or Roma migrants, or the begging Roma – despite the fact that Roma are not the only people begging on the streets.³⁹⁾On Tuesday, March 25, 2014 the Government Offices of Sweden published the white paper that revealed 100 years of history filled with abuse and violations of Roma. I haven’t met one single Romani Swedish citizen who begs. A text on the history of begging in Sweden was published in 2015 on forskning.se: “In some municipalities we hear arguments reminiscent of those heard during the 19th century: Send the Roma home, they’re able-bodied and can work.” Thus Roma have become “the undeserving poor” according to Dick Harrison, professor of history at Lund University. He sees the attitudes of the majority culture as well as historical patterns repeat themselves.⁴⁰⁾Lotta Nylander, “Tiggeri genom tiderna – ett social dilemma”, Forskning.se, April, 14, 2015. Accessed April 27, 2016, www.forskning.se/2015/04/14/tiggeri-genom-tiderna-ett-socialt-dilemma. In the book Stranger Shores J. M. Coetzee writes that our historical existence is a part of our present being, that it is inseparable. He claims that it is exactly the part of us that belongs to the past that we can’t fully understand because in order to do so we would need to understand ourselves both as “objects of historical forces” as well as “subjects of our own historical self-understanding”.⁴¹⁾“Historical understanding is understanding of the past as a shaping force upon the present. Insofar as that shaping force is tangibly felt upon our lives, historical understanding is part of the present. Our historical being is part of our present. It is this part of our present – namely the part that belongs to history – that we cannot fully understand, since it requires us to understand ourselves not only as objects of historical forces but as subjects of our own historical self-understanding.” J. M. Coetzee, Stranger Shores. Essays 1986-1999, (New York: Vintage, 2002), 15. We can’t understand ourselves in the present, but we can – based on what we do in the present – change our understanding of our historical self. We can confront our understanding of our historical self, in an encounter with the present.

I ask key figures in regular contact with people who are in Sweden begging what percentage of these people are Roma and about their view of that designation. My first contact, Victor Emanuel Chiorean, writes me an email: “If one is looking for exact statistics on what percentage of the beggars in Sweden are Romanian Roma, one will run into a couple of obstacles:

1. Free movement makes demographic data difficult to parse.
2. The individuals who allegedly beg are not registered in Sweden or in Romania, they simply leave and return when things get really dire. So there is no official statistic that investigates this. What we do have are samples attempted by various actors, among others the police and other authorities in Sweden.
3. The demographic underreporting that the Romanian Romani populations constantly are up against. According to the official Romanian census there are about 500,000 Roma in Romania, while the EU, the European Council, and human rights organizations maintain that the population is more like 2,000,000. Which would indicate that they are underreported by 75 percent. The reason is difficult to pin down, but many Roma don’t want to identify themselves as such.” ☞

The Swedish ESF Council has been tasked with managing the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived – FEAD. They haven’t been able to find a designation they want to use. “Swedish FEAD isn’t interested in if this is specifically about Roma or if the poor come from certain countries. The target group is simply impoverished, marginalized people who move around Europe in search of a living and a better life and who lack the right to aid and support according to Swedish law.”⁵¹⁾In 2015 five programs were granted more than a million kronor each for aid work for the poor in Sweden. Helen Uliczka, FEAD, “Inventering av Forskning och kunskap rörande FEADs målgrupper – resultat och reflektioner”, May 5, 2015. Accessed April 27, 2016, www.esf.se/Documents/Våra%20program/FEAD/Utlysning/Forskningsinventering%20FEADs%20målgrupper.pdf.

5.3 Giving in Free Movement Europe

As previously mentioned, I hired a professional market researcher in the summer of 2011 to conduct a qualitative market survey in which givers in Sweden shared their views on those who beg and how they could become more successful at begging. The survey report states that a successful beggar:

1. Is in a dire situation that is more or less temporary.
2. Is active – gets something because they are doing something.
3. Is relatively clean – nobody wants to be close to someone who is too dirty.
4. Is “normal” – a person with “normal” clothes that one can identify with is easy to understand – and does not make the giver uncomfortable with strange or unusual rituals.
5. Can offer a reason for being in said situation, or explain what the money is going to be used for.

The beggars need to meet these various requirements that we as potential givers make on them in order to appear “authentic”. Different kinds of beggars are ranked in relation to that ideal and thus the parameters listed above disqualify many of the people who beg on the streets of Sweden.

In August 2013 Laura and I travel to Bucharest to interview people begging there. Despite a Romanian law prohibiting those who are deemed able to work from begging, Laura has seen people beg as recently as the winter of 2012.⁵²⁾Statute 61 from 1991 prohibits a person who is able to work from asking the public for charity. Lege no. 61/1991 (Republicata 2011). Accessed April 13, 2016, politiaproximitate.ro/legea_61.html. For three days and nights we look in the types of places where you’re likely to find people begging in Sweden: In the subway, outside shopping malls, places with plenty of pedestrians. The first day we find two seniors begging to supplement their pensions. The street is also a place where they can meet people. We encounter an older man, on sick leave since 1989, whose pension doesn’t cover his rent. Around the corner we find an 80-year-old woman who tells us that her husband recently died. That the funeral was so expensive that she ran out of money. She’s there temporarily, for a week, waiting for her retirement check that has been delayed due to a public holiday. She doesn’t ask anybody for money; but people still give and many seem to know her. We move on to Calea Victoriei. On the sidewalk, across from the police headquarters a man sits begging. One of his legs has been amputated.

“For me this is the only way to survive, but I dream of a real job. I still have both my arms. I’ve heard from friends that it is possible for cripples to get upper-body work and I would love that opportunity, but nothing seems to come of it. Perhaps I should try to go to a different country.”

He says he has been begging on the street for 18 years, since the accident, and that the police leave him alone since he isn’t considered able-bodied.

Then we go to the old city, the quarters tourists visit to shop and eat at sidewalk cafes. Surely there will be beggars there. But we don’t find any. We ask some patrolling policemen and they say that some who used to beg now sell roses, safety pins and other things, the rest aren’t here anymore. Those who can’t survive in Bucharest seem to go to other European cities. Free movement within the EU has created an opportunity for people to seek sustenance in other parts of Europe. “We export beggars”, Laura’s Romanian friends joke. They don’t look happy when they say it.

The number of poor EU citizens coming to Sweden for work is expected to rise significantly. Some of them build their own homes – often together – on commons, some rent a place to sleep, some sleep on the streets. Socialstyrelsen, the Swedish national board of health and welfare, found 370 homeless EU citizens in Sweden when they attempted to map homelessness among EU citizens, however the government coordinator for the homeless, Michael Anefur, estimates that the actual number is somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people.⁵³⁾“Slutredovisning från den nationella samordnaren för utsatta EU-medborgare” [Final report from the national coordinator for vulnerable EU-citizens] presented in 2016, reads:
“In 2012 vulnerable EU citizens began to come to Sweden in larger numbers than before. Some came to beg, others to pick berries, or look for work. Over the next three years their numbers increased considerably. In the spring of 2014 an estimated 2,100 such individuals were present in Sweden. In April 2015 there were 5,000 individuals. Since then the numbers ceased to increase and a minor drop has been recorded. In November 2015 the number was estimated at 4,700 individuals. The number of children in the group varies, but is estimated at between 70 and 100.”
——Martin Valfridsson, “Framtid sökes – Slutredovisning från den nationella samordnaren för utsatta EU-medborgare”, Statens offentliga utredningar, (SOU 2016:6), 7. Accessed April 13, 2016, www.regeringen.se/contentassets/b9ca59958b5f43f681b8ec6dba5b5ca3/framtid-sokesslutredovisning-fran-den-nationella-samordnaren-for-utsatta-eu-medborgare-sou-2016_6.pdf. Aaron Israelsson, the editor in chief of Faktum magazine writes: “In 2013 alone Romania received 3.6 billion dollars from guest workers abroad. That amount includes large sums acquired through begging on the streets of Sweden, among other places. This aid is far more effective than the earmarked EU economic aid to the Roma minorities in the eastern member states. Because it turns out that the EU money has had virtually zero impact, according to the EU’s own accounting reports.⁵⁴⁾Aaron Israelson, “Stödet till tiggaren Vanessa är unikt”, Göteborgs-Posten, March 19. 2014. Accessed April 13, 2016, gp.se/kulturnoje/1.2314378–stodet-till-tiggaren-vanessa-ar-unikt. If that is the case: then why is the “aid” given by the individual donor on the street to the person begging handled better than the official EU aid?

We didn’t find any Roma begging in Bucharest. The disabled man is not Romani, neither are the retirees, or the young man we spoke to. Nor are they migrants. There are many life stories behind begging, but the fact is that most EU citizens begging in Europe are Roma. The majority of those I’ve spoken with in Gothenburg, as well as on the streets and in the various encampments in Stockholm, have been Roma. The Roma who exploit the freedom of movement to find sustenance in other countries, when their own country doesn’t meet their needs, are trying to take control of their circumstances and improve them. The fact that Roma emigrate in higher numbers also has to do with anti-Gypsyism: the historic and continued racism directed at Roma.

In February 2012, the Council of Europe issued a report on Traveller and Roma human rights in Europe. Thomas Hammarberg ordered and published the report in his capacity as Council of Europe commissioner: “The commissioner has repeatedly highlighted that anti-Gypsyism is a crucial factor preventing the inclusion of Roma in society and that resolute action against it must therefore be central to any efforts to promote their integration.⁵⁵⁾Commissioner for Human Rights, “Human rights of Roma and Travellers in Europe”, (Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2012), 40. Accessed April 13, 2016, www.coe.int/t/commissioner/source/prems/prems79611_GBR_CouvHumanRightsOfRoma_WEB.pdf.

On 20 March 2014, Hammarberg makes a statement on Sweden’s treatment of Roma EU migrants. “The municipalities are unwilling to do anything to indicate that they understand the situation, they won’t even install a toilet. Nor do they want to create more beds in homeless shelters. Nothing is done to improve daily life.”⁵⁶⁾Daniel Vergara, “Hammarberg: ‘Sverige hycklar om romska migranter’”, Expo, March 20, 2013, expo.se/2014/hammarberg-sverige-hycklar-om-romska-migranter_6445.html. Responsibility is shunted upward and sideways when the Romanian ambassador proposes that Sweden needs to ban begging, as Romania would then care for its own. At the same time one points to the overly national EU policy and argues that the individual nation-state – in this case Romania – is responsible for using the EU aid it is given for Roma. They need to “pay their dues”, as some from the Swedish liberal party put it. “The government exploits EU cooperation to circumvent accusations that they are creating policy in nationalistic self interest.”⁵⁷⁾Peo Hansen, EU:s migrationspolitik under 50 år: ett integrerat perspektiv på en motsägelsefull utveckling, (Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2008), 218. The alternative appears to be further centralization of power.

On March 25, 2015 the Swedish government presents its white paper on abuse and violations of Roma in the 20th century. The same day that the report is issued, Socialstyrelsen issues a press release in which they accept historic responsibility: “Socialstyrelsen and medicinalstyrelsen [the national board for medicine] have repeatedly been more than passive executors, they have been active in discriminating against Roma and Travellers, or limiting their access to social support, says Eva Wallin.”⁵⁸⁾Socialstyrelsen, “Allvarliga övergrepp mot romer och resande i Socialstyrelsens historia”, March 25, 2014. Accessed April 13, 2016, http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/nyheter/2014mars/allvarligaovergreppmotromerochresandeisocialstyrelsenshistoria. Does this include present-day Romani EU citizens? ☞

Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg again: “If we handle this well and show at least a modicum of dignity when we approach those who come here and don’t send people away, but instead actively contribute to change in their home countries, this could be remembered as a period in history during which people were proactive and didn’t merely sweep Roma human rights under the rug.”⁶⁶⁾Daniel Vergara, “Hammarberg: ‘Sverige hycklar om romska migranter’”.

How does the national system for human rights and solidaric welfare work in the context of the supranational system built on the basis of consensus within the EU? I pose this question to Hans Swärd over email and he answers: “It is only recently that the EU has been able to agree on joint poverty programs. Often the goals are long range and have been difficult to reach. There are big differences between the poorest and the richest EU nations. To access the welfare systems in the various countries one needs to have a permanent residency permit, to have worked and qualified for sick leave, pension etc. The very poorest groups end up outside of the traditional safety nets.” Freedom of movement is limited for the poor, both within national and supranational law and justice, and if you are Romani the risk is even bigger that you also are subject to ethnic discrimination.

Peo Hansen, a political scientist, studies migration politics and integration in Europe. He maintains that few political topics paint a clearer picture of the issues central to the construction of civil society. Migration policy functions as a lens through which we see what the EU wants to be and what it wants to become. He poses the question: Who belongs in the EU and who are the strangers; who is said to contribute to the construction of the new Europe and what is seen as a threat to it?”⁷¹⁾Hansen, 220. When this new edifice pushes people to their knees, in supplicant positions, on the streets of Europe and Europe does not assume responsibility for this the much-vaunted European community falters – to whom does it fall to uphold this community? Of what should it consist?

The charity of the individual toward the person begging cannot be the solution. “Solidarity!” the protestors shouted on March 13, 2014, before the demolition of the homes that seventy EU migrants had built in Helenelund, Sollentuna. Sven-Eric Liedman describes the difference between charity and solidarity thus: “Charity is based on one individual’s dependency on another; solidarity is based on a mutual dependency within the generally ruling welfare system.”⁷²⁾Liedman, 25. Liedman argues that it is important to differentiate between a solidarity founded on mutuality and one that is directed mainly, or only, at those who are struggling. “As soon as the boundary between solidarity and charity is exploded, the solidarity directed at those in need will be emphasized.”⁷³⁾Liedman, 28. ☞

Fundamentally it is a question of who is granted which rights. Begging happens out of necessity, giving is a response to these unfulfilled needs. Giving is dependent on the state of necessity. Any aid work or charitable work may or may not involve compassion. This work may be necessary, but it is still the way of “charity” for the one who is aided must submit to the aid – to the solution. Aid work can only be viewed as a way of “freeing” those who are aided, but it can never be a solution. The risk of paternalism is also inherent to charitable aid work, the risk of becoming an advocate, of knowing best when it comes to “what the other needs”.

The temporary shacks and campers should be regarded as crimes, the police “fights crime” such as settlements on occupied ground. The coordinator feels zero tolerance must be practiced. But “necessity knows no law”, Leif Eriksson, lecturer on global studies tells me, critically over the phone. “You can’t legislate against sleeplessness.” Leif maintains that when there is an emergency the necessity defense in the Swedish penal code, chapter 24 §4 applies.⁸¹⁾“An act performed by someone, in other cases than those mentioned previously in this chapter, out of necessity constitutes a crime only if it, taking into account the nature of the danger, the harm caused to others, and the circumstances in general, is inexcusable. Necessity occurs when there is a danger to life, limb, property, or some other important aspect protected by the legal system.”
——Brottsbalk 24 kap. “Om allmänna grunder för ansvarsfrihet” 4§, (1994:458). Accessed August 3, 2016, http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/brottsbalk-1962700_sfs-1962-700. He maintains that the evictions that have taken place can be described as violent social conflicts and often have their root in fundamental needs not being met: “If basic human needs aren’t met any talk of justice or human rights is pointless”, he says. But the short term must not be the enemy of the long term. Is the statute on necessity the only protection the poor have? How does necessity relate to the law? The expression “necessity knows no law” exists in several languages but is difficult for authorities to handle.⁸²⁾An expression that exists in many languages. Necessitas non habet legem in Latin, an idiom credited to St. Augustine (5^th century), philosopher, rhetorician and one of the most translated medieval authors. Necessity has no law; La necesidad no conoce leyes. In Arabic الضرورات تبيح المحظورات. The grounds for its application is that a situation arises suddenly and poses an immediate threat to life, limb, or property and in which no other solution than breaking the law is available. “In principle any act can be an act of necessity, there are no limitations on the statute” Ulrika Sandberg writes in her thesis in criminal law.⁸³⁾Ulrika Sandberg, “Straffrättslig nödrätt”, (Thesis in criminal law, Faculty of Law, Lund University), 13. Accessed April 27, 2016, https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=2293402&fileOId=2342902.

Ultimately necessity is about ethics and values, which are important aspects of the culture of legislation but which aren’t always easily shaped into rule of law.⁸⁴⁾Ibid., 8. The definition of necessity is at least two people and a situation between them that involves a “collision between two interests protected by the legal system”⁸⁵⁾Ibid., 11., Sandberg writes and clarifies: “So in the end it comes down to a need to balance interests due to the collision between two interests that has occurred due to necessity.”⁸⁶⁾Ibid., 15. Using a number of examples she stresses that the legal judgment demands a concession, a mediation, an exchange of some kind, a transaction for both parties. What that might be is a question that is specific to each situation. Compassion is necessary to organic solidarity and it is precisely compassion that lies at the root of the statute on necessity. “Necessity is a kind of superior interest of justice that should nullify the principle of ‘summum ius, summa iniúra’, which roughly translates to extreme justice is extreme injustice. Without this type of general criminal law, formal justice would look very unjust at times from both a human and a moral point of view,”⁸⁷⁾Ibid., 8. Sandberg writes. ☞

In the work Lights in the City by artist Alfredo Jaar the cupola of Marché Bonsecours in Montreal was lit up by a red light every time a homeless person arrived at one of three shelters in Montreal and pushed a button.⁸⁸⁾“Approximately a hundred thousands watts of red lights have been installed in the Cupola of the Marché Bonsecours, a landmark monument in the old Montreal. Detonating devices have been placed in the Accueil Bonneau, la Maison Eugénie Bernier and la Maison Paul Grégoire, homeless shelters located within 500 yards of the Cupola. Every time a homeless person enters any of these shelters, they are free to push the buttons and the red light will flash in the Cupola.” Lights in the City, 1999, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. Accessed, April 26, 2016, www.alfredojaar.net. This makes it a public concern that not all citizens have a place to sleep. Jaar makes visible that which would not otherwise be visible. It’s a way of developing images in the viewers. Thus he reveals how the private is connected to the public, he reveals the political – the boundaries drawn in society.⁸⁹⁾I differentiate between “the political” and current policy, for example in chapter 7 I write about the choral arrangement: “The political happens every day, between people in our surroundings who share our existence.”
——And in this chapter, the last sentence in §5:
——“The begging on the streets challenges the reigning EU policy, it raises questions about how the distribution should happen. The giving on the streets challenges the same policy and raises the same essential questions.”

Chapter 5: Art and the Political
Notes