Begging in Geneva: Which Right to the City?

Abstract

Based on a study that we carried out in Geneva between 2013 and 2015, this paper suggests that the anti-begging law adopted by the Geneva High Council in 2007 can be understood a way of managing urban cohabitation with marginalized populations. In response to this “poverty management”, we argue that the continued occupation of the public space by the people wh o practice begging can be understood as them implementing their own “right to the city” anyway, in the subversive sense meant by Lefebvre.Sur la base d’une étude menée à Genève entre 2013 et 2015, cet article soutient que la loi anti-mendicité adoptée par le Grand Conseil de Genève en 2007 peut être comprise comme un moyen de gérer la cohabitation urbaine avec les populations marginalisées. En réponse à cette forme de “management de la pauvreté”, nous argumentons que le fait qu’il y ait toujours de personnes pratiquant la mendicité à Genève peut être compris comme la mise en actes de leur « droit à la ville », au sens plus subversif entendu par Lefebvre

Beyond the state: Developments and trends in critical social work in Switzerland and Hungary

“…It means that only Swiss citizens or foreigners with a residence permit are eligible to receive social supports. Undocumented migrants from the European Union/European Free Trade Association (EU/EFTA) as well as the Global South are excluded from normative social transfers (Colombo et al, 2015: 8).…”

“…In larger Swiss cities, undocumented migrants (many EU citizens among them) are particularly threatened by severe exclusion as they live in the country without social rights and access to medical services (Roduit, 2020). 2 In Basel or Geneva, for instance, half of all service users at low-threshold homeless services came from one of the Central and Eastern European countries, and the majority of them live in the country without papers (Colombo et al, 2015; Epple and Schär, 2015). These people are EU citizens covered by the decree on the free movement of persons (also signed by Switzerland), but they are not eligible for social and medical services without residence permits.…”

“…Particularly among the sex workers and the beggars, the vast majority of Eastern European migrants arriving to Switzerland belong to the Roma community. Studies from Geneva, Zürich and Basel show that besides the general residence-based rejection that they experience as unregistered Eastern Europeans, the migrating Roma also face widespread racism at the state-run social services and other authorities (Colombo et al, 2015; Rathgeb, 2013: 17).…”

La mendicité : Un problème d’ordre public ou une forme de participation sociale ?

“…La reconnaissance est comprise ici dans le sens que lui donne Honneth ( 2002), c'est-à-dire une manière de prendre sa place en société et de confirmer aux yeux d'autrui que son existence en vaut la peine. Dans cette perspective, l'intégration sociale passe par des formes réglées de reconnaissance, qui s'incarnent notamment dans l'espace physique et matériel, par exemple à travers des formes d'appropriation de l'espace public (Colombo, 2015 ;Colombo, Reynaud et al, 2016).…”