Romania became a member of European Union on 1st of January in 2007 and soon there after several different roma families and groups have been looking for livinhood by begging, selling flowers or collecting bottles on the streets of Helsinki. Since the collapse of communism Romanian Roma lost their place of employment. “During the socialism everybody had work”, told a roma man living in Finland. They lack education and health care, and face structural racist segregation which makes many Roma feel to not belong to the society. After the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union many Roma started to use their right for the free movement and residence in other EU Member States in search of better conditions of life.
City of Helsinki has not been offering any shelter or social help for Romanian Roma; on the contrary, there are questions about the need of the criminalization of begging. On 27th October in 2009, officials from the City of Helsinki evicted a community of Romanian Roma families, who had been living near the Metro Station Kalasatama. With nowhere to go, the families huddled under the bridge of the Metro Station, while the Real Estate Department ordered the Public Works Deprartment to destroy the huts that the Roma families had built to protect themselves against the upcoming winter cold. Metallic stoves were left smoking along the tracks of the metro line as the chainsaws and crowbars tore down the makeshift homes.With my photography poject I want to ask: What are the values we cultivate to build our surrounding environment? Who has a right to live in a city? Who has a right to be a member of the Municipality and Human Society? Only those with money?
More pictures & details: www.flickr.com/photos/kukkaranta/
