
Full Answer
What is a squatter settlement?
A squatter settlement is a place where the residents don’t have legal rights over the land. A squatter area is composed of numerous buildings that are occupied by people with no legal claim to the land. These residential areas are found in urban localities, and they provide housing to the poorest people in the world.
What is a squatter camp?
A squatter camp in South Africa. A squatter settlement is a place where the residents don’t have legal rights over the land. A squatter area is composed of numerous buildings that are occupied by people with no legal claim to the land.
What are squatter settlements in Lagos?
Squatter settlements are not only found in Lagos. They are located in all cities in low-income countries and newly emerging countries all around the world. They can also be called informal settlements, shanty towns, favelas, barrios or slums.
What is happening to the squatter settlements in Greece?
In recent years the authorities have demolished areas of squatter settlements, like the one in 2012. Badia, a swampland settlement on the edge of the city’s Apapa Port, was one of the worst-hit targets. More than 15,000 people have lost their homes.

Where are squatter settlements located?
Squatter settlements are found in various locations, but are usually built on the edges of cities in the world's poorest countries or LEDC. They are also built on marginal land, which is land which has less value and is not occupied by legal land uses and buildings.
What are squatter settlement?
The term squatter settlement is often used as a general term to encompass low-quality housing, occupied by the poor, usually on the periphery of cities in the Global South.
Why are squatter settlements?
There are two reasons for this: one is internal to the squatter, and the other is external. Internal reasons include, lack of collateral assets; lack of savings and other financial assets; daily wage/low-income jobs (which in many cases are semi-permanent or temporary).
What is an example of squatter settlement?
In Bhopal, India , and Mexico City, for example, squatter settlements were built next to deadly industrial sites. In such cities as Rio de Janiero, Brazil; La Paz, Bolivia; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Caracas, Venezuela, they are perched on landslide-prone hills.
What are squatter settlements AP Human Geography?
Squatter. Settlement. An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.
Where are squatter settlements found in Lagos?
Squatter settlements are found all over Lagos. They are typically found in areas where more wealthy people do not want to live. This includes marshland and land close to industry.
How are squatter settlements made?
Squatter settlement or slum upgrading is a process through which informal areas are gradually improved, formalized, and incorporated into the city itself, through extension of land and services to the dwellers. It provides squatter dwellers with the social, economic, institutional, and community services in the cities.
When did squatter settlements start?
Under the California Land Act of 1851, squatters made 813 claims as the population in California increased from 15,000 in 1848 to 265,000 in 1852. The Squatters' riot of 1850 was a conflict between squatters and the government of Sacramento, California.
What is another word for squatters?
In this page you can discover 10 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for squatter, like: homesteader, illegal tenant, trespasser, squat, nester, eviction, slum, colonist, pioneer and settler.
What are the causes and effects of squatter settlements?
Rapid urbanization, poverty and lack of access to land and ownership, in addition to limited or no social housing, have led citizens to build their homes illegally under very poor environmental and social conditions.
What are the main characteristics of a squatter settlement?
Characteristics of squatter settlementshouses built from dried mud as the walls and corrugated iron for the roof.no toilets.no electricity between phone lines.no running water, sewage or electricity in homes.no paved roads or sewers.little space between houses.no infrastructure.extremely high density's.More items...•
What does it mean to be called a squatter?
a : one that settles on property without right or title or payment of rent. b : one that settles on public land under government regulation with the purpose of acquiring title.
What are slums and squatter settlements?
It means slums are areas where people with land ownership live in poor environmental and socioeconomic conditions and are different from squatter settlements, which are the settlements where people build houses without any legal title to land (UN-Habitat 2003).
Are squatter settlements illegal?
In the United States, squatting is illegal and squatters can be evicted for trespassing.
What are the characteristics of squatter settlements?
Characteristics of squatter settlementshouses built from dried mud as the walls and corrugated iron for the roof.no toilets.no electricity between phone lines.no running water, sewage or electricity in homes.no paved roads or sewers.little space between houses.no infrastructure.extremely high density's.More items...•
When were shanty towns first developed?
Shanty town history in the U.S. dates back to the year 1929 when the unemployed people were thrown out of their houses, and they started building these shanty settlements. In the year 1930, when the economy saw a setback, the condition also worsened as more and more people settled here. As these shanty towns were first developed in America, so they were known as Hoovervilles but, by the year 1940, as the economy recovered so too did the conditions. The examples from the developing countries include Asia’s largest shanty town, which is Orangi in Karachi, Pakistan, and many others across South Africa, Haiti, Kenya, India, and Bangladesh. In the developed countries, these can be found in some parts of the European Union, Spain, the United States of America, and France.
Is there any urban planning?
There is no urban planning or any house number and even no street name. Moreover, they even lack the basic amenities of the life. The most prominent cases of fire occur here, and it is almost difficult to reach because of uneven street planning. 4. Historic and Modern Examples.
What is a squatter settlement?
Squatter settlements are any collection of buildings where the people have no legal rights to the land they are built upon. The people are living there illegally and do not own the land. They provide housing for many of the world’s poorest people and offer basic shelter.
Where are squatters located?
Squatter settlements are not only found in Lagos. They are located in all cities in low-income countries and newly emerging countries all around the world . They can also be called informal settlements, shantytowns, favelas, barrios or slums.
What are the problems of living in a squatter settlement?
Population density is very high in squatter settlements in Lagos. This is because of the lack of available land to build on. The area known to outsiders as Makoko is actually six distinct “villages” spread across land and water: Oko Agbon, Adogbo, Migbewhe, Yanshiwhe, Sogunro and Apollo. The first four are the floating communities, known as “Makoko on water”; the rest are based on land. In these floating communities, homes are built on stilts on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon. It is estimated that a quarter of a million people live in Makoko.
How many squatter settlements are there in Lagos?
There are 13 squatter settlements in Lagos, These are: The map below shows the location of a number of squatter settlements in Lagos. Squatter settlements are found all over Lagos. They are typically found in areas where more wealthy people do not want to live. This includes marshland and land close to industry.
Where are floating communities built?
In these floating communities, homes are built on stilts on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon. It is estimated that a quarter of a million people live in Makoko. The homes are built from materials such as wood and metal sheets. They do not have basic facilities or sanitation.

Characteristics of A Squatter Settlement
Squatter Settlements in Developed Countries
- Even though squatter settlements are not common in developed states, there are numerous European cities with shanty towns. The high number of immigrants has resulted in the growth of shanty towns in the cities situated on the entry points of the EU like Patras and Athens. Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter s…
Disadvantages of Squatter Settlement
- Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements. They are fire hazards primarily due to the flammable materials used to build some of these homes and the high density of buildings. These settlements have high rates of diseases, drug use, suici…
Characteristics of A Squatter Settlement
- Due to its illegal status, squatter settlements lack an adequate supply of various infrastructures. These settlements have poor drainage and roads, sanitation, water supply, market places, and health centers among others. Even though these resources are in some settlements, they are poorly maintained, disorganized, and unreliable. They also lack various essential services that ar…
Squatter Settlements in Developed Countries
- Even though squatter settlements are not common in developed states, there are numerous European cities with shanty towns. The high number of immigrants has resulted in the growth of shanty towns in the cities situated on the entry points of the EU like Patras and Athens. Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter s…
Squatter Settlements in Developing Nations
- The largest Asian slum is Orangi in Pakistan. Orangi became quite famous during the 1980s when the locals initiated the Orangi-Pilot Project after being frustrated by lack of development from the government. Slums are known as ‘’bidonvilles’’ in francophone nations like Haiti and Tunisia. Some of the biggest slums in the world are located in Kenya ...
Disadvantages of Squatter Settlement
- Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements. They are fire hazards primarily due to the flammable materials used to build some of these homes and the high density of buildings. These settlements have high rates of diseases, drug use, suici…