In recent years EU-citizens living in poverty exercising their right to free movement within EU have gained increased political interest. Some vulnerable EU citizens travel to Sweden in order seek livelihood, some of them engage in begging. The presence of vulnerable EU citizens engaged in begging has generated the emergence of a new policy area with increased political activity at both national and municipal level. Here, a state public report, policy proposals and problematization of the issue at municipal level are analysed. The analysis reveal how begging is constructed as a social problem and how the vulnerable EU citizen is positioned. The political discourse in this policy area is characterized by securitization and individualisation of responsibility, begging is problematized based on notions of welfare nationalism. People who beg are positioned as undeserving and associated with criminality, with few exceptions, the social rights approach is silenced. Begging is mainly constructed as an individual problem and linked to personal deficiencies. Thus, the structural issues such as inequality, discrimination and poverty are also subordinated in the political discourse. Further, the analysis exposes that human rights issues are not taken into account when policies targeting begging are formulated.

Flera studier har uppmärksammat att utsatt EU-medborgare i Sverige många gånger blir offer för hot, trakasserier och våldsbrott till följd av deras sårbara livssituation och nedsatta tillgång till skydd i landet. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur utsatta EU- medborgare upplever och hanterar risker för våld, hot och kränkande behandling. Datan består av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju utsatta EU-medborgare i Umeå kommun. I studien har två teorier använts för att analysera materialet vilka är stigma samt aktiva och passiva copingstrategier. Dessa har använts för att ge en djupare analys av hur copingstrategier sammanhänger med upplevelser av stigmatisering. Resultatet visar att de utsatta EU-medborgarna upplever att de till följd av deras ursprung från Rumänien förknippas med negativa egenskaper och riskerar att bli föremål för diskriminering och kränkande behandling. Det framkommer att gruppen på olika sätt måste förhålla sig till sitt stigma vilket begränsar deras handlingsutrymme och vilka strategier de har tillgång till för att hantera erfarenheter och oro av att utsättas för kränkande behandling. Resultatet visar att hur väl man har lyckats frigöra sig från den egna gruppen får tillgång till fler aktiva strategier. En slutsats från studien är att strategierna gruppen använder bör förstås utifrån dimensionen stigmatisering och förslagsvis benämnas som anpassade strategier, det vill säga där man agerar i en kontext av underordning och på olika sätt förhåller sig till stigmat. / Several studies have noted that vulnerable EU citizens in Sweden often become victims of threats, harassment and violent crimes due to their vulnerable life situation and reduced access to protection. This study aims to examine how vulnerable EU citizens experience and manage risks of violence, threats and abusive treatment. The data consists of qualitative semi- structured interviews with seven vulnerable EU citizens in Umeå municipality. In this study, two theories have been used to analyze the results which are stigma as well as active and passive coping strategies. These have been used to provide a deeper analysis of how coping strategies are associated with experiences of stigmatization. The results show that vulnerable EU citizens feel that they, as a result of their origin from Romania, are associated with negative characteristics and are at risk of discrimination and abusive treatment. It appears that the group must relate in various ways to their stigma, which limits their range of options and the strategies available to them, to deal with experience and fear of being subject to abusive treatment. The results show that people who manage to free themselves from the group get access to more active strategies. A conclusion from the study is that the understanding of strategies used by vulnerable EU citizens should include the dimension of stigmatization and be referred to as adaptive strategies, that is, where one acts in a context of subordination and in different ways must relate to the stigma.

More and more Swedish municipalities are adopting approaches that target ‘vulnerable EU citizens’ and the ‘passive collection of money’. This thesis analyses begging permits, bans, and other approaches, motivated by the positions supported in Eskilstuna, Katrineholm and Norrköping. The approaches analysed are irrespective of the municipalitiesthat implemented them. This thesis follows a ‘problem’ questioning approach, taking into consideration the context and the system under which the ‘problems’ are constructed and aims to find the implicit and explicit aims of the various approaches.

The question concerning vulnerable EU-citizens has been widely debated in Sweden the last few years. Due to unclear legislation and strong municipal self-determination municipalities act differently regarding vulnerable EU-citizens. The purpose for the dissertation is therefore to analyse how Stockholm and Gothenburg City acts and collaborates with non-profit organisations in the question concerning vulnerable EU-citizens and whether the approaches can, according to the theory of territorial governance, be viewed as effective. The dissertation has showed that Gothenburg City has created a common action plan with surrounding municipalities in order to expand their territory. Gothenburg have also signed an IOP-agreement with several non-profit organisations in order for them to act together. The dissertation has showed that an IOP-agreement can be equated to an effective and sustainable partnership. Stockholm City on the other hand has not expanded their territory, since an equivalent interpretation of the law is important to the municipality. No IOP-agreement has been signed and a reason for this could be that the relationship between non-profit organisations in Stockholm City has historically been characterized by competition instead of trust. Due to the complex question concerning vulnerable EU-citizen, new forms of partnership has though been developed in Stockholm City.

Introduction: Vulnerable European Union citizens (vulnerable EU citizens) are those who come to Sweden from EU member states. In Sweden the term “vulnerable EU citizens” is associated with the word “beggars”, which in turn is associated with Roma people. By November 2015 the number of vulnerable EU citizens in Sweden was estimated to be 4 700. The majority of these were from Romania. Roma as citizens of an EU member state have the right to reside in EU countries in accordance with the EU’s freedom of movement rights concept for up to but no longer than three months. However, to obtain the right for residence after three months, proof of financial resources and health insurance are required. Lacking these resources, vulnerable EU citizens have subsequently lost their right for residence and therefore became undocumented. They often find themselves in the same situation as undocumented migrants from outside the EU, having poor health outcomes and limited access to health care. In my study I aim to explore access to health care for vulnerable EU citizens in Umeå, a city in eastern Sweden. Methods: A qualitative design methodology has been applied in this thesis. Those contacted for this study were; Doctors of the World, Health on Equal Terms, Staff for planning and control Västerbotten Region, University Hospital of Umeå and representatives of vulnerable EU citizens’ community from Romania in Umeå. Seven in-depth interviews were collected with professionals and volunteers from these organisation/institutions and members of vulnerable EU citizens’ community. Questions were asked about their experience and knowledge regarding access to health care for vulnerable EU citizens. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Three main categories and one final theme were developed during data analysis. The first category “Difficult to access health care for vulnerable EU citizens in Sweden without European Health Insurance” elaborates the dependence of vulnerable EU citizens’ access to health care on having health insurance, specifically European Health Insurance and National Health Insurance. It also describes what kind of access to health care vulnerable EU citizens have in Sweden. The second category “Decision about how much access to health care provide for vulnerable EU citizens lies on medical personnel” discusses the situation of health care personnel when they treat vulnerable EU citizens in hospitals. The third category “Organisations, Doctors of the World and Health on Equal Terms, mediate connection between vulnerable EU citizens and hospitals, so they can have their right to health fulfilled” elaborates about the role the organisation plays when vulnerable EU citizens are in need of health care. After grouping categories and looking at the data from more interpretive, abstracted higher level, the final theme was created “Lack of attention from the national and international levels to the situation of vulnerable EU citizens’ access to health care”. Conclusion: This study highlights the difficulty for vulnerable EU citizens to access health care in Umeå if they do not have European Health Insurance. Being treated as undocumented migrants is the only way they have access to emergency services. Health care personnel feel insecure when treating vulnerable EU citizens, because there are no clear guidelines when vulnerable EU citizens can be treated as undocumented migrants as well as what is included in the clause “the care that cannot wait”. Because of this situation, vulnerable EU citizens sometimes are not able to receive the medical help they need. Organisations, Doctors of the World and Health on Equal Terms, help to mediate the connection between vulnerable EU citizens and hospitals which helps them to access the health care and fulfille their right to health. Lack of attention from the national as well as international governments to this situation is found to be important factor influencing vulneralbe EU citizens’ access to health care

In order to gain an understanding of how begging is constructed as a societal problem in the local Swedish social context, the aim of this qualitative study was to investigate a number of municipal begging bans in order to make visible societal attitudes that hide behind written language of begging discourse. The data collection method was text collection, and the material was documents in the form of three municipal begging bans (in municipal regulations). The method of analysis was critical discourse analysis (CDA), a form of textual analysis, and the analytical focus was the written discourse in its social context. The municipal begging bans that were analysed testified to a very high degree linguistically about negative societal attitudes towards begging, and the conclusions that could be drawn on the basis of the results were presented in four summarising themes. These where: disruption of public order, a vulnerability that one does not want to contribute to maintaining, ”we and them” and passivity and criminality. These societal attitudes could be summarized as not our vulnerable/poor = not our problem, and were largely hidden behind references to disruption of public order in public spaces.