Begging

«Tiggerene er akkurat som rotter! De forpester byen vår og er under kategorien SKADEDYR!!» (Deltaker på Facebook-gruppen «Få tiggerne vekk fra Kristiansand», oktober 2014)

Den globaliserte fattigdommen er vanskelig å holde unna, selv i et Norge på velstandstoppen i verden. Men synet av fattige tilreisende som tigger i gatene, vekker ubehag, noe som kommer fram i den offentlige debatten. Hos noen synes det å slå ut i forakt, mens det hos andre vekker empati. De nye midlertidige migrantene som tigger i Norge, er hovedsakelig fra Romania, og stort sett etniske roma. Studier viser at det er mer snakk om «uorganisert fattigdom» enn om organisert kriminalitet, som ikke er blitt doku-mentert i direkte sammenheng med tigging (Djuve mfl. 2015; Engebrigtsen 2012; Engebrigtsen mfl. 2014). Både norske og europeiske undersøkelser tyder på at roma er den aller mest diskriminerte og marginaliserte minoriteten i vår del av verden (HL-senteret, 2012; Rosvoll og Bielenberg 2012). Mye tyder på at denne marginaliseringstendensen påvirker holdninger og diskurser også i det norske samfunnet, som ellers er preget av menneskerettighetsretorikk og regnet som et av verdens mest sosialt progressive land. Norske mediers framstilling av tigging og roma kan sies delvis å spille på og styrke fordommer (Adolfsson 2014). Enda sterkere ord og kategoriseringer forekommer i den mer uformelle, folkelige diskursen om tiggere i sosiale medier, en arena som ikke har vært utforsket i samme grad tidligere. Det er denne arenaen det settes søkelys på her.

I denne teksten presenteres en empirisk studie av ambivalensen overfor
fattige tilreisende i dagens Norge. Mer spesifikt vil jeg utforske hvordan tiggere omtales i en bestemt gruppe på et nettsamfunn, og hvordan dehumanisering og menneskeverd framtrer på og mellom linjene. Dette belyser jeg gjennom en diskursanalyse av innlegg fra gruppesiden og ved hjelp av språkpsykologisk og samfunnspsykologisk teori. Hensikten med analysen er å forstå hva slags dehumaniserende tendenser – og motkrefter – som forekommer i nettdiskursen. Dette danner igjen grunnlag for å drøfte mulige strategier som kan fremme empati framfor hatprat.

This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish society’s reactions to the presence of begging EU citizens during the period 2014 – 2016. The so-called ‘EU migrants’ are impoverished people, often from Romania, and commonly identified as Roma. The analysis is based upon empirical material consisting of media articles, interviews, social media, and auto-ethnography. The theoretical approach blends Lacanian psychoanalysis with historical-material dialectics and is inspired by the critique of ideology as formulated by Slavoj Žižek.

The presence causes a multilayered crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, social, and psychic lines. This because it is a symptom of the Lacanian Real and capitalism’s contradictions. This is manifested in the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social help to ‘EU migrants’ on the one hand, while seeking on the other hand to reproduce the image of Sweden as promoting welfare and equality, solidarity, and anti-racism. The contradiction’s material base is the political deadlock between left and right regarding the labor and housing markets. Providing ‘EU migrants’ (being neither citizens nor refugees) access to welfare would risk disrupting the societal moral economy, causing political turmoil. The solution to this dilemma is to expunge ‘EU migrants’ while framing this as an act of poverty-reduction.

Meanwhile, the unresolved occurrence of begging and ‘rough sleeping’ creates anxiety and provokes aggression among Swedish subjects, resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Poor people without shelter are forced to use public rooms as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, which in turn is unconsciously registered as existential transgressions risking the destruction of the psychic investments of Swedes in their material surroundings.

A main focus of the analysis is the anxiety triggered by the confrontation with a begging individual on the sidewalk. Due to our human empathic transitivity, the visible suffering of the ‘beggar’ becomes involuntarily experienced as suffering within the observer. Furthermore, when the subject is forced to choose whether or not to help, s/he unconsciously experiences how the Other’s desire threatens to dissolve the subject. These anxieties are typically transformed into sympathy, antipathy or apathy.

The paper explores the legal context of begging in India and contextualises it with the reality of the lives of the people living in the Lal Bagh Jhuggi, Mansarovar Park. It also addresses 'how' the people from the community are sidelined from the mainstream and face challenges which ultimately shape their personal choices, thereby making them the periphery. The submission is backed by the case illustrations depicting the life events of the individuals from the community and their experience with the very act of begging. With the challenges being discussed, some of the holistic strategies have also been discussed for inclusivity.

In this paper it is argued that we should not give money to beggars. Rather than spending our welfare budget on the people whom we happen to pass by on the street, we should spend it on those who are genuinely poor and who can be helped the most with each pound that we give. A pound given to a beggar in a Western country, it is argued, is a pound spent on someone who – in a global perspective – is relatively well off. That pound, if spent better, could have rescued the life of a starving child in another part of the world.

This biographical paper explores how a fraternity of hereditary beggars, from the mountains of Kurdistan and known as the 'Jīlū Men', 'Great Deceivers' or 'Thieves of the Cross', spent nearly a century 'collecting' their way through some sixty-one countries on each of the inhabited continents. Segregationist South Africa formed an important part of their circuit as the fraternity, who were mostly Nestorians (later called Assyrians) from a single, ancient village, begged from, and generally duped, colonial elites. The fraternity's tactics involved the mocking appropriation of high-sounding titles, the development of exquisite skills of mimicry, the exploitation of sentiment through harangue, invective and rhetoric and, especially, the cultivation of careers as popular preachers and lecturers. Story-telling was aided by various novelties (for eg.,  magic lanterns, fake sacraments and straight faces) and involved outrageous exaggeration mixed with petty detail. In South Africa, the most well-known to succumb to the routine were Lionel Curtis, Louis Botha and D.F Malan, among others. As part of an ongoing transnational biography of one figure within the Nestorian/Assyrian underworld, Rev. M G Daniel, PhD, the paper talks to debates around the impact of literacy on imperial peripheries, as well as the salience of religious economies, trust and confidence in the social history of Empire, and the durability of itinerant, vernacular cultures of mobility.

Most people associate begging with charity, i.e. getting something for nothing. This chapter proposes that begging is seen by its practitioners as a kind of work which requires the bodily training and attention.  I draw this conclusion from my observation and participation in begging activities carried out by a family of Romanian Gypsies in Northern Italy. Firstly, I will give an overview of Romanian Gypsy populations and their mobility to Italy. Then I shall introduce the people of my study, the Cortorari. They hold a specific view of personhood as enmeshed in kinship relationships. Persons live up to a moral code buttressed by idioms of shame and honour. These values underwrite the realms of gender, clothing and economics. A specific dress together with a strict division by gender of the economic activities and certain behaviour towards money lie at the core of the morality of kinship. When they go begging, Cortorari renounce their customary dress for worn-out blackish clothing, believed to be characteristic of a generic beggar. By so doing, they symbolically renounce their ethnic identity and almost all moral values embedded in it. Cortorari make a qualitative difference between home and abroad: moral sentiments define the first and economic exchanges, the latter.

The Code of Petty Offences in Art. 58(1) specifies that begging in a public place, when done by people capable of working or having means of subsistence, constitutes an offence. The purpose of the article is to assess the rationality of this regulation and its compatibility with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. For the achievement of this goal, the article elaborates on five issues.
Firstly, the essence of begging, based on the results of research in the social sciences. Secondly, the position of this provision among other norms of the Polish criminal law aimed at counteracting begging. Thirdly, a historical justification for this provision. Fourthly, the practice of its application. Lastly, its compatibility with constitutional and international standards for the protection of human rights. The conclusions indicate that this provision is unreasonable and incompatible with the Polish Constitution.

In 2018, the Delhi High Court held that certain provisions of the state’s anti- begging law were unconstitutional. Nevertheless, such laws continue to operate in at least 20 other Indian states and union territories even today. Begging as a social phenomenon remains an under-researched subject within the social sciences, especially in India where the rare mention that the subject finds often gets subsumed within larger debates on chronic poverty or organised crime. This article begins by tracing the history of regulations around begging, followed by a discussion on the persistence of both begging and anti-begging laws prevalent today. By examining the justification underlying the criminalisation of begging, it contends that such an approach fails to provide insight into the lived experiences of individuals engaged in this activity. It therefore proposes that the analyses of begging in the Indian context adopt symbolic interactionism that lends its rich theoretical framework to enable an interpretation of the act as one of agency; a survival strategy among those living on the margins of the neoliberal urban experience. In doing so, it posits a view of the beggar as a powerful political symbol with the potential to subvert and interrogate the rules of the game in a globalised world.

""The term Hamina refers to a group of people within the Amhara ethnic community, representing a kind of a “caste” due to their way of life with mendicancy. The Haminas who primarily reside in rural central and northern Ethiopia are named differently in the various regions. Among others Abba Wuddie, Abba Gonda, Abba Ayireba and Lalibela are some of these names by which the Hamina are identified. Ever since, this relatively small group of people faces neglect and exclusion by and from Amhara community members of better status and position, principally due to their ancestral background and traditional way of life. According to stories, the forefathers of the Hamina used to have suffered from leprosy so that their descendants inherited their right to practice mendicancy by moving from village to village and from house to house. This orally transmitted mendicancy bases poetic lyrics with praising and blessing parts. The Hamina have always believed that this singing tradition would protect them and their families from being imposed by leprosy.
The Hamina are afraid to show their faces and to be recognized during the daytime so that the singing is customarily carried out prior to sunrise. This livelihood has been the major means of income to date, since the Hamina receive all kinds of presents (clothes, food, and money) from charitable people. My paper will briefly discuss the tradition of mendicancy among this minority group. Parallel to detailed music analysis, it will also consider historical, social, cultural and economic aspects of the Hamina in past and present.
""

Trafficking of children for labour exploitation is a profit-oriented criminal activity by which children are recruited, transported, harboured or received for the purpose of labour exploitation irrespective of whether or not force, abduction, fraud or other means were used. This paper examines child labour trafficking in the context of human rights violations and as the worst form of child labour. In an attempt to situate the discourse of alleged labour exploitation and trafficking of Roma children in Montenegro, focusing in particular on instances of child begging, this paper offers an overview of the international legal framework as well as the Government of Montenegro’s policy framework relevant to this issue; an analysis of implicated historical, familial and cultural structures; and focuses on identifying root causes in terms of push-pull factors that are associated with enhancing children’s vulnerability and proneness to exploitation. Along with a set of recommendations, in closing, the paper calls for a more sophisticated analysis of child labour trafficking and, in the case of Roma children, a more nuanced understanding of historical and cultural pretexts against the backdrop of labour trafficking.

This paper is a result of the study conducted with the objective of examining street beggars and begging life in Dodoma and Singida Municipalities in Central Tanzania. The current paper examined the feelings of street beggars on begging life and their survival livelihoods in urban areas of central Tanzania. This study employed a cross-sectional research design. The population of the study consisted of street beggars and non-street beggars, municipal officials, councilors, business people and community members. This was done for triangulating and enriching data that were collected from street beggars. The study found that most of sampled beggars felt very bad towards begging life and saw begging activity as an immoral conduct. Street beggars obtained their basic necessities from different sources. Furthermore, it was found that begging flourishes because community tends to be generous to beggars. The study recommends that awareness programmes need to be conducted for the poor so as t...

India is the most powerful country in terms of economy. The rapid growth in economy and population is also increases the poverty in the Indian country. This increasing population is causing disc breaks to the development of economy, with problems such as supply of food and demand of food, begging is one of them which is affecting the Indian economic system in a most serious manner as in the human resource is getting unutilised.
Begging is most serious social issue in India. Begging is a problem for society is as much as large no. of beggars means not utilization of human resources and available resources in existing environment. This paper tries to examine the reasons causes of begging and the awareness of government schemes run for the people of such kind who are involved in begging at Allahabad.

A little-remarked but widespread form of mendicancy takes place not on the economic margins, but at the center of modern social life, where cultural wealth is concentrated. The social beggar, as often as not culture-rich yet destitute of spirit, is a social type overlapping with homo oeconomicus, or model capitalist. A figure grown up with modernity, they seek to raise their standing by expanding their social network and winning recognition. Unlike their classic cousin working the street, they importune not for material aid, but for connections, appealing to social affinities and implicit professional obligations.

In a society in which money is the measure of man and unconcealed selfishness rewarded, mendicancy that does not directly indicate ‘real’ (material) want and is practiced in relative privacy may escape detection. Contrary to the cant of self-made men or meritocratic fundamentalists, on the one hand, and the privileged or the affluent, on the other, begging is a continuum of practices that is compatible with bourgeois liberalism and cuts across class. By exploiting generally downplayed or denied dependencies, the social end of the spectrum of beggary exposes and tests what cannot simply be dismissed as vestiges of feudalism in modern socio-economic structures or privilège oblige—namely, the ties that bind society together.

This master thesis focuses on panhandling on the sidewalks of Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal in 2019-2020. Through this ethnographic research, I wanted to understand how panhandlers are encouraged to adopt desired and expected behaviors in the eyes of citizens. To answer this question, I first wanted to disentangle the terms “homelessness” and “panhandling” by showing that the latter consists of an activity which is also practiced by people in a situation of precarious housing or at risk of homelessness. Conceiving panhandling as an active rather than a passive practice, I wanted to get away from the one-sided concept that turns the panhandler into a recipient for charity. I looked at the forms of regulation that govern this activity in public space, taking into account the historical, social and legal transformations of sidewalks and panhandling since the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the North American context. By mobilizing the theoretical framework on governmentality and citizenship, I wanted to understand how panhandlers maintain a behavior pattern conveyed by ordinary citizens. To do this, I analyzed six types of relationships that panhandlers maintain on a daily basis while they practice their activity: relationships with passers-by / pedestrians, panhandlers and other marginalized people, with shopkeepers adjacent to panhandling places, with foot patrols officers, spaces, environment and places as well as the relationship to oneself and one's identity. Analytical data is based on participant observation and jotting notes. I have also used photography to capture urban social landscapes and complement the analysis of relationships to space, environment and places.
From this descriptive analysis, I tend to demonstrate that there are multiple modes of producing governmentality on the sidewalk. First, the foot patrol officers, institutionalized social actors, convey formal and state control. They maintain public order and regulate the panhandling activity, in particular through the production of tolerance under constraint or conditional on the adoption of desired and orderly behaviors. They also use body positioning and movement tactics to avoid undesirable elements such as obstructions. Second, the control between pedestrians and panhandlers is achieved through the production of deference to pedestrians, the latter conveying a desired and orderly mode of driving and using the sidewalk in its dominant functions. Third, there is a form of delegation of power among panhandlers, thus making it possible to maintain informal order in absence of formal control. The analysis shows the presence of self-control and identity work among panhandlers, the latter aimed at not disturbing the order on the sidewalk. There is also informal control over the appropriation of the place of panhandling, ranging from violent control over others to self-control allowing negotiation and delineation of space. Finally, I tend to demonstrate that governmentality operates at the spatial level and that it helps to make certain behaviors appropriate rather than others, deemed undesirable. The analysis of marginal and prime spaces informs us about an unequal social, geographical and spatial relationship between ordinary citizens and panhandlers/homeless people. In conclusion, I want to demonstrate that panhandlers try to legitimize their presence in the eyes of ordinary citizens by practicing what I call ordered or ordinary panhandling.
Key words: panhandling, begging, homelessness, sidewalk, social control, governmentality, citizenship, geography, public space, public order

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Most studies on beggars in Nigeria have fo-cused exclusively on the social course of in-digenous begging activities in Nigerian cities. There exists dearth of knowledge about interna-tional migrant beggars and their health-seeking behavior in Ibadan Southwestern Nigeria. A cross sectional survey data were collected through purposive sampling technique among a total of 250 international migrant beggars in six loca-tions in Ibadan. Results showed that 56 % of re-spondents were female, few had formal educa-tion, 85.6 % were married, and 94.8 % were Mus-lim. Respondents migrated from Niger (83.6%),

One of the most conspicuous livelihood strategies for physically disabled people in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, is a particular style of begging known locally as "doing documents." Confronted with the stigma of begging, disabled beggars create documents in an attempt to legitimize and regulate begging through formalization and bureaucracy, presenting their relationship with donors as NGO fund-raising and government tax-collecting. The dynamics of petitioning for these "contractual dependencies" provide a nuanced perspective on desired dependencies: dependencies can be presented in multiple ways, and people consider some dependencies more legitimate and valuable than others. Recipients are not passive but play a defining role in shaping these relationships, seeking a balance between proximity and desired distance to patrons. [dependence, disability, distribution, bureaucracy, begging, temporality, Democratic Republic of Congo]


Na Kinshasa, moko ya bamayele ya kobika po na bato bazali na tengu (handicapés) ezali oyo babengaka: "kosalela badocument" to "kosalela mikanda". Bato ya tengu basenga-sengaka lisungi pe ebimisaka bango bisenga-senga. Po na kokima ebimiseli wana, bato ya tengu bamisalela mikanda po na kondimisa kosenga na bango bo ete eyebani na mobeko. Na boye bakomisa yango bo likambo ezali kosalama na nzela pe endimami na leta pe eyangelamaka na mikanda. Epayi ya bato bakopesa mosolo, bamibimisaka lokola Lingomba ya bokumbeli makambo ya leta te (ONG) ya bokongoli mosolo ya lisungi pe ya mpako ya leta. Loyenge ya bolakisi mikanda ya "boyokani po na kosalisama" epesi mwa bokeseni na etaleli ya kosalisama oyo bango balingi. Kosalisama ekoki kolakisama na banzela ebele. Na kati ya boyokani yango, bazwi-lisungi bamitikaka te kasi bamitiaka nde na esika ya basengi na bolukaka ndelo ya malamu kati na bango pe bakolo mimbongo. [kosalisama, tengu, bokaboleli, boyangelami na mikanda, bisenga-senga, botango, Ekolo Kongo ya Demokrasi]

The population of beggars on streets and public spaces is growing exponentially in many urban areas of Tanzania. However, the problem of street begging is becoming acute and one of the development challenge in urban areas of central Tanzania. This study examined the implications of demographic dimensions on the incidence of street begging in urban areas of central Tanzania with Dodoma and Singida Municipalities as case studies. A cross-sectional survey was employed involving 130 street beggars, 60 focus group members and 30 key informants. Structured questionnaires were administered to street beggars who were found on streets and various public spaces using convenience sampling technique. Moreover, group discussions, key informant interview, and observations were used to collect data relevant for the study. The findings revealed that high incidence of street begging on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.The findings show that begging is more pronounced among natives or ind...

The population of beggars on streets and public spaces is growing exponentially in many urban areas of Tanzania. However, the problem of street begging is becoming acute and one of the development challenge in urban areas of central Tanzania. This study examined the implications of demographic dimensions on the incidence of street begging in urban areas of central Tanzania with Dodoma and Singida Municipalities as case studies. A cross-sectional survey was employed involving 130 street beggars, 60 focus group members and 30 key informants. Structured questionnaires were administered to street beggars who were found on streets and various public spaces using convenience sampling technique. Moreover, group discussions, key informant interview, and observations were used to collect data relevant for the study. The findings revealed that high incidence of street begging on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.The findings show that begging is more pronounced among natives or ind...

Résumé :

À Paris, à la fin du xixe siècle, des enfants se livrent à la mendicité au lieu de se rendre en classe et ce en dépit de l’obligation scolaire. Ils sont absentéistes voire non-inscrits sur les listes des écoles. La mendicité représente, comme le vagabondage, une forme particulière de déviance enfantine située au croisement de la pauvreté et de la délinquance. La Société contre la mendicité des enfants (1896-1901), soutenue par des personnalités influentes, se donne pour mission de les faire scolariser. Si l’assistance et la protection sont des idées essentielles, il s’agit aussi de protéger la société dans son ensemble en éloignant les enfants de la rue et en leur apportant les bienfaits de l’école. Ces bonnes intentions vont rapidement se heurter à la résistance des différents acteurs en présence, et aux limites fixées par l’école de la IIIe République.

Summary : In Paris, at the end of the nineteenth century, some children were begging in the streets instead of going to school, despite the laws on compulsory education. They were considered as truants, and sometimes their names weren’t even mentioned on the enrolment lists. Begging, like vagrancy, was a particular kind of child deviance. It was linked with poverty and delinquency. The “Société contre la mendicité des enfants” (the Society against begging by children) (1896-1901), was created and supported by powerful people. It aimed to provide those children with a formal education. While its main purpose was to assist and take care of them, it was also to protect public order by keeping children off the street, thanks to the benefits of schooling. These good intentions soon ran against many resistances from the different parties and the limits set by the school of the French IIIrd Republic.

This study examines the effect of using children as begging guides by people with sensory disabilities in Africa. It argues that in some African countries, visually impaired persons, especially parents and relatives, have devised the strategy of abusing their children or someone very close to them as begging guides for financial gain. While this strategy has remained a recurrent problem with severe social, economic, political, and legal implications, scientific research on addressing these implications is scarce. Given this, the article examines the rationale for using children as begging guides, its effects on the children and visually impaired parents, and mitigation strategies against abuse of children as begging guides in Africa. The qualitative research design based on key informant interviews (KIIs) complemented social exclusion and childhood theoretical underpinnings of the study. Results from (KIIs) showed that poverty, religion, cultural beliefs, financial profiteering, poor governance, breakdown in policy implementation against begging are among the rationale why children are abused and used as begging guides. The results also showed that these children experience low academic performance in school, harassment, psychological trauma, health complications from laborious trekking. At the same time, their visually impaired parents suffer from regrets and guilt of not being able to provide good parental care to their children. It concludes that good rehabilitation, vocational programmes, and prompt government supports for people with sensory disabilities would lessen the abuse and use of children as begging guides in Africa.