”It’s our own society that makes it hard to work with this group” : A qualitative interview study on social workers experiences of working with Roma EU-citizens

Romani people came to Sweden in the early 16th century and is today acknowledged as a minority group. Today in Sweden there’s a large group of Roma EU-citizens who come to beg. Romani people has been an exposed and discriminated group since their arrival in Sweden – a pattern that’s still relevant regarding Roma EU-citizens coming today. One profession that faces Roma EU-citizens in their work is social workers. This study aims to describe and analyse how social workers experience working with Roma EU-citizens, what difficulties or opportunities they see and how this work can be developed in the future. Furthermore, the study examines what beliefs social workers feel exists in society surrounding this group. The study uses labelling theory and theories of cultural competence. Six interviews were conducted with social workers and the study uses a qualitative approach and a hermeneutic perspective. Study results indicate that cultural differences affects working with the group. Results also show that the social workers feel there’s a lot of prejudice against the group. The study concludes that cultural competence is important in order to perform a good social work with the Romani group. Another conclusion is that structural problems complicates working with the group