Social disinvestment and vulnerable groups in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The case of people with health problems in Italy

This report is prepared in the framework of the Europe H2020 project ‘Rebuilding an inclusive, value based Europe of solidarity and trust through social investments’ (RE-InVEST). The project aims to evaluate the social investment strategy of the European Commission implemented in 2013 in response to the social damage of the financial crisis in 2008. The RE-InVEST consortium assesses the social damage of the crisis from human rights and capability based approaches with an eye to those vulnerable groups affected the most by the crisis in the 12 countries (and 13 regions) covered by the consortium. The analyses are carried out by the local partners, who consist of NGOs and/or researchers. The RE-InVEST consortium has jointly developed the PAHRCA-methodology that combines princi­ples of Participatory Action research with Human Rights and Capability Approaches. This qualitative, par­ticipatory research does not generate representative results but rather aims at deepening the understanding of the economic, social, cultural and political impacts of the crisis on the lives of vulnerable people by giving them a voice. The biographies of C. and M. illustrate the marks of the crisis on individual life courses. They represent the trajectories of two vulnerable women marked by psychological problems. C. has experienced drug prob­lems she’s been trying to overcome with a residential rehabilitation program. M. battles a psychiatric disorder and is currently host of a social housing service. These difficulties are worsened, as the report will show, by a number of difficulties involving the limitation of basic human rights. While the biographies exemplify the effects of the crisis in the course of time, the overall analysis is based on contributions of all participants and is arranged thematically, following the core elements of Human Rights and Capability Approach. Our analysis confirms the erosion of social rights. This erosion, partly due to disinvestment, partly due to the neo-liberal ideology, has a tremendous impact on most vulnerable people. Some of their rights are not granted anymore. The access to social protection, jobs, decent housing, health care and food has dimin­ished. As a consequence of the erosion of social rights the collective capability has diminished. Their capacity to support, their capacity to choose, their resources have been diminished. The erosion of social rights has real consequences for people’s individual capability