Poverty is exploding in Europe and the Swedish dream tends to be a failed dream for the European influx

Thursday, 10 October 2013
Austerity was said to be a tool that would revise the economy and within a very short time, turn the dying and troubling economies to growth. But that economic postulation has led to an explosion of hardship in a supposedly rich part of the world to beyond explanation.
The people whom the austerity policies were to hit the hardest were, and are the common person who works for a wage, who had not contributed in a very significant way to the economic collapse of Europe. Some took heavy housing loans but it was the analysts, and brokers who convinced them to take those loans. Now those analysts and brokers are feeling good on other jobs while the common people, many of them have lost their jobs are languishing in economic despair.
In Europe, 3.5 million Europeans are lining up every day to collect food from food banks and charity shops and a growing number of these poor are in serious psychological health, writes the charity organisation,  Red Cross in a new report.
“Poverty has increased significantly over the past four years,” says Ingela Holmertz, head of the Swedish Red Cross in a press release.
The report is based on the organisation’s experience from 42 European countries. In 22 of the countries, the proportion of people who depend on Red Cross food assistance increased by 75 percent between 2009 and 2012. The organization also sees that more poor people are languishing in very poor psychological health than previously expected and that the rate of suicide is increasing.

“The deterioration is very large compared to when we investigated this 2009,” says Ingela Holmertz.
Red Cross believes that the economic crisis has serious humanitarian consequences which can be long-lasting. Some examples are that 43 million Europeans do not have enough to eat every day, 120 million people in Europe live at risk of poverty and that children for the first time in modern history will live under worse conditions than their parents.
They identify that within Southern Europe, such as in Spain,  millions of people are queuing to get food every day, in France, 350 000 more people are living below the poverty line compared to 2009 and in Greece, suicide rates have increased by 40 percent.
For the situation in Sweden, the Red Cross writes that there are about 35 000 people in the country without authorization. It also notes that the amendment from 1 July this year, which also gives undocumented immigrants the right to health care, is a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, the crisis in Europe has led to a large number of people to come here with the hope of getting a job given the persistent trumpeting that the Swedish economy was doing better than the rest of Europe. Many of them after arriving here are shocked to find that it was all dreams and illusions and are now living on the streets without being able to support themselves.
“We see the consequences of the humanitarian crisis here in Sweden. Red Cross meets people who are outside the social safety nets,” says Ingela Holmertz, national director of the Swedish Red Cross in a press release.
By Scancomark.com Team