Doubling Syndemics: Ethnographic Accounts of the Health Situation of Homeless Romanian Roma in Copenhagen

摘要

This study investigates health concerns and access to health services for Roma from Romania wholive in homelessness in Copenhagen, Denmark. They collect refundable bottles and call themselves“badocari,” which in Romanian refers to “people who work with bottles.” Homeless Roma in Denmarkhave not previously been studied through ethnographic research. The study stresses the importance ofa syndemic approach towards understanding badocari health concerns. Syndemics is understood as cooccurringdiseases, which unfold within contexts of social injustice. The case of the badocari is argued tobe a case of “doubling syndemics” since the co-occurring diseases are further multiplied and enhancedby an ongoing mobility between dual contexts of precarious livelihoods in Romania and Denmark,respectively. The study complements the approach to syndemics with a perspective on human rights.It sheds light on the limited possibilities that exist for addressing health concerns of the badocari, bothin Romania and in Denmark, and argues that the universal human right to health is not realized in theeveryday lives of destitute EU migrants such as the badocari. Rather, they experience lack of access toadequate medical treatment and follow-up care, both as citizens of a member state and as co-citizens ofthe European Union.