A three day Citizens' Jury style process was used in Uppsala, Sweden concerning policies regarding street begging by internal EU migrants.
Problems and Purpose
Remit considered by the participants (translated from Swedish):
• What is the problem with EU citizens begging on the streets of Uppsala?
• Whose responsibility is it to improve their situation?
• What should be done in Uppsala?
Background History and Context
General information compiled by research team (translated from Swedish; see also project report file):
About 1000-2000 EU migrants engage in street begging in Sweden, about 50 beggars in Uppsala (2013).
Most live in campsites, in cars and shelters.
90% of all EU migrant beggar in the city of Stockholm come from Romania.
Legislation
The legislation is unclear when it comes to schooling (not undocumented but in Sweden with a work permit for 3 months)
Possible measures (DN 2015.01.24, Ewa Stenberg):
1 Encourage the government in Bucharest to improve the situation of the Roma and to use the subsidies it receives from the EU. It is this line that the government is now practicing.
2 Prohibit begging, like Denmark and Norway. It is advocated by SD and some individual moderate politicians. The other parties object that free movement in the EU also applies to the poor and that bans do not solve the problem of poverty.
3 Arrange jobs for the beggars. Lars Calmfors, professor of economics and columnist at DN's editorial page, has pointed out that it would help vulnerable people, but probably not stop begging.
4 Support aid organizations assisting Roma on the ground in Romania.
5 Let Romania pay the social security costs for its citizens traveling to Sweden. It would give the country impetus to help the Roma in their home villages. The proposal has, among other things, been put forward in a parliamentary motion by Edward Riedl (M).
6 Appoint a begging coordinator. The government plans to do so soon. He will have contact with municipalities and authorities as well as non-profit organizations in Romania that can help returning beggars.
Ban begging?
Kent Ekeroth (SD) believes that begging should be banned because it is an unwanted phenomenon in our Swedish society, we do not want to see it on our streets (SVD Opinion, 22 April 2011, "Ban begging in the whole country").
Cecilia Magnusson (M) believes that begging should be banned in order to reduce the risk of poverty becoming permanent.
Organized crime?
Trafficking in human beings, extortion, fraud (several different types of crime that may be relevant in cases where it is organized).
When they are asked, it generally seems as if the beggars themselves express that there is no organized activity but that they beg to support their own family.
Mats Karlsson, chief of operations for the police in Malmö, says that there is no basis for the claim that the begging was organized. Nor have those who work directly with the beggars through the City Mission's efforts in Skåne seen anything to suggest that it is organized. A report from the Social Resource Administration in Malmö that investigated the beggars' living conditions has also found something to indicate organization (Expressen, Kvällsposten, 5 March 2015 "The police: The truth about the beggars in Malmö").
Urban Olsson, acting group manager at the local police area Uppsala-Knivsta, says that the beggars in Uppsala must pay between SEK 1000-2000 a month for a place to beg. It is compatriots who demand the money, but since the beggars have chosen to pay the money without - according to them - that any violence or threat has occurred, it is difficult to describe it as criminal (UNT? The article has been reproduced in Aftonbladet, March 3, 2015, "Police: Romer forced to pay to beg ”).
Whose responsibility?
Romania
Marit Paulsen, Cecilia Wikström and Lotta Edholm (FP) believe that we must put pressure on Romania (Brännpunkt, SVD, "Romania betrays its responsibility for the Roma")
a. Accommodation?
b. Job?
c. Contribution?
Debate between Bo Rothstein and Thomas Hammarberg
- Rothstein's proposal is to ban giving to beggars, ie the same logic as the Sex Purchase Act.
- Hammarberg argues against with the argument that you have to put pressure on politicians and the EU.
How should the beggars be represented in our event ??
- Video-recorded interviews
- In the form of experts who get to give their perspective at the beginning of the event
- Regular participants?
About EU migrants in Uppsala:
Started coming to Uppsala in 2010/2011 and has since grown in number.
Some go home and new ones come here.
Everyone expresses a longing for a job.
Some groups among the Roma live on selling home-made wood products: brooms, wicker baskets.
About Roma in Romania:
They are low-educated, poor, unemployed, discriminated against in Romania. 80% live in poverty, 70% live in ghettos or dumps, 25% do not go to school, only 10% finish high school, early marriages, young parenting, prejudices against them that they are lazy, criminal and aggressive, says Mihaela Suleap on Crossroads.
Jobs for the uneducated are becoming increasingly uncommon in Romania and the rest of the EU.
About Romania:
Has oil, gas, forest and fertile soil. Could be one of Europe's richest countries. But they have 3,000 municipalities and a mayor and a couple of officials in each small municipality and then it becomes difficult with coordination, says Martin Valfridsson.
About different solutions:
The basic problem is poverty among the Roma and the only solution is to eradicate poverty on the ground in the countries affected, says Martin Valfridsson.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Funding body: Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment was done via a regional survey (Uppsala Municipality), implemented by Statistics Sweden (SCB; see File—SCB Technical Report). Participants were selected from respondents using a process of random stratification based on demographic (gender, age, education) as well as attitudinal information broadly based on the principles of "discursive representation" (See Dryzek & Niemeyer 2006)
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See attached files
See Also
References
Jennstål, Julia, Simon Niemeyer, and Lotti Fred. 2016. Medborardialogen Uppsala Talar om tiggeri. Medborgarnas åtgärdsförslag för att hantera tiggeriproblematiken. Department of Government (Uppsala University).
Jennstål, Julia, Simon John Niemeyer, and Lotti Fred. 2016. Uppsala talar om tiggeri: Medborgare Berättelse och Sammanfattning. Department of Government, Uppsala University. http://www.statsvet.uu.se/digitalAssets/446/446442_3rapport--2810-maj-29.pdf.
Jennstål, Julia. 2019. "Deliberation and Integrative Complexity: Assessing the Development of Deliberative Norms in Minipublics." Swiss Political Science Review 25 (1): 64–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12343.
Jennstål, Julia. 2018. "Deliberative Participation and Personality: The Effect of Traits, Situations and Motivation." European Political Science Review 10 (3): 417-440. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773918000024.
Niemeyer, Simon John, Francesco Veri, John S. Dryzek, André Bächtiger, and Mark E. Warren. 2021. How deliberation happens: Enabling and activating deliberative reasoning. Centre for Deliberative Demcracy and Global Governance, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra (Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra).