Captions: PascalVossen_DP_1: April 12th, 2015. Uppsala, Sweden. Elvis and his wife Adriana at the temporary shelter for EU Migrants. The couple has three small children at home in Romania in the care of Adriana’s mother. They chose to leave their children at home so that they can attend school. The couple hopes to earn some money with begging in order to provide for their family at home. PascalVossen_DP_2: April 13th, 2015. Uppsala, Sweden. Cristi(right), 16, bends forward through the car window to greet his youngest sibling. He takes care of his 9 younger siblings at a parking lot in the center of Uppsala while their parents are begging on the streets. PascalVossen_DP_3: Oliver and his son Emanuel, 5, watch a cartoon together at the shelter for EU Migrants in Uppsala on April 13th, 2015. Two days later the shelter closed its doors. The shelter was the initiative of the Swedish church and a temporary solution to prevent many of the Roma from having to spend the cold winter nights in their cars or on the streets, especially for families with young children. PascalVossen_DP_4: June 3rd, 2015. Uppsala, Sweden. Vasile (center) and four of his children in their newly acquired caravan at a parking lot on the outskirts of the city. This is where the family of eight spends their nights. At the end of May the police evicted the family from a parking lot in the center of Uppsala. The authorities got formal complains by residents concerning noise and trash on the public grounds around an on the parking lot. Furthermore, the parking lot and surrounding area were deemed unsafe for children to play. PascalVossen_DP_5: June 11th, 2015. Uppsala, Sweden. Perla, 11, is playing with a plastic gun on the parking lot where the family is staying. Her parents brought her and her 4 younger siblings to Sweden.
The amount of EU migrants coming to Sweden has drastically increased, with just a few hundred nation wide in 2012 to hundreds of people in every major city today. The city of Uppsala officially counts around 150 people, mostly Roma from Romania, but the real amount is expected to be much higher and steadily growing. Most of the Roma come to Sweden in search for a better life and to escape extreme poverty back home. Some hope to find jobs and along with that the right to stay in Sweden. The reality is that 99% of them end up begging on the streets in order to survive and possibly save some money for the family back home.
In Sweden its not illegal to beg and most people are friendly towards beggars, which partly can explain the recent increase of Roma choosing to come to Sweden. For most of them begging on the cold Swedish pavement is a better option than staying at home where the complete lack of jobs, nationwide poverty and the continuous discrimination of Roma makes for an even harsher reality. The Roma population has been discriminated for centuries, but as a result of Romania’s crippled economic situation and the consequences of wide-spread corruption, their situation today is worse then ever.
In Sweden, people are concerned that the country might not be able to handle the increasing amount of Roma coming to Sweden. Most people have an understanding for the hopeless situation of the Roma, but there is also a growing amount of frustration concerning the situation. The issue is currently fueling the political debates on immigration an integration policies in Sweden, which will likely gain populist right wing political party ‘Swedish Democrats’ votes for the next election.
Aside from the political debate the main concern is the growing amount of street children. A large amount of the Roma coming to Sweden are families with young children. In many cases their education in Romania gets interrupted and their chance to a normal future and life drastically declines with it. These children spend their days playing on unsafe streets and parking lots. Most of them sleep together with their family in cars or caravans that are unfit for living. June 2015 the Swedish government presented a measurements package for EU migrants temporarily staying in Sweden. It concerns a plan to fight the begging, EU poverty and the exploitation of people. The Swedish government has promised to protect the rights of these people, especially the rights of the children temporarily in Sweden. However, a solution has to be sought on EU-level and in a co-operation with the Romanian (and Bulgarian) governments.
Since April 2015 I regularly meet up with Roma in Uppsala in order to document their living conditions. I want to show their daily life aside from the begging and to increase an understanding for their situation in Sweden and the rest of the EU for that matter.