
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 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 the two types of informal settlements?
The two dominant types of informal settlements are slums that have developed out of the illegal occupation of the marginal areas of the city by migrants and squatters, and chawls, which are residential units originally built for workers in the mills and factories.
What are the problems faced by the people living in settlements?
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.

What causes squatter settlements APHG?
Describe two factors that contribute to the formation of squatter settlements. Expensive housing and lack of jobs in the city. Usually are people who migrated from farms that can no longer support them, causing migration to the city.
What factors contribute to squatter settlements?
The high building standards of the legal houses, delayed response and procedural problems of the legal land provision system, and high housing rents in the city centre are the major factors identified by interviewees as reasons given for squatting.
What are 3 Consequences of squatter settlements?
three consequences of rapid squatter settlements are: increased unemployment, pollution to the environment, and a negative aspect of a country's reputation. All who live in squatter settlements are unemployed. That could drastically raise the unemployment rate in poverty.
Where are squatter settlements typically located?
Squatter settlements, widespread in urban Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia, are a characteristic feature of contemporary urbanization.
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.
What is meant by the term 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.
What are the challenges of squatter settlements?
In terms of environmental challenges in the squatter settlements and slums, air and water pollution, lack of personal hygiene and poor environmental sanitation, and health, noise, and cultural pollution are among the most visible ones. Sprawling, litter, and polluted waterways are most prevalent in most urban slums.
How can squatter settlements improve life?
Improving squatter settlementsSite and service schemes. People pay a small amount of rent for a site and they can borrow money to buy building material. Rent money used to provide basic services.Self-help schemes. Government and local people working together to improve life. ... Local authority schemes.
What is the difference between slums and squatter settlements?
While the two terms tend to be used interchangeably, simply put, the definition of slums focus on their environmental and quality of life (QoL) aspects , while that of squatter settlements focus on the legality of the land ownership and other infrastructure provisions.
What is an example of a squatter settlement?
Therefore, a residential area occupied by squatters becomes a squatter settlement. But the narrow generalization, especially of settlement type is evident: everything from a brick-and-concrete multistoried house to a "occupied" cardboard carton become "squatter settlements".
What is a real life example of a 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.
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 are the causes of squatter settlements quizlet?
What are the causes of squatter settlement? Population increase and migration from rural areas for jobs; housing shortage for large number of urban immigrants. Area in a city in an LDC where people illegally establish residences on land they don't own or rent.
What are three 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 is the cause of squatting in the Philippines?
In the Philippines, poor urban people squat on government and private property because they cannot afford their own housing. They face an uncertain future, as it may only be a matter of time before they are evicted.
What are the reasons for development of slums and squatters in urban areas?
Squatter and slum settlements have formed mainly because of the inability of city governments to plan and provide affordable housing for the low-income segments of the urban population. Hence, squatter and slum housing is the housing solution for this low-income urban population.
Why are squatters important?
Squatter settlements or informal settlements have been a very important part of many cities in the Global South. Shifting government and international agency attitudes toward them since the 1960s have reflected a growing recognition of the capacity of the urban poor to adapt and sometimes to thrive in very difficult circumstances. As the world’s urban population grows , there will be increasing pressure on both land and housing. The shift toward market mechanisms for both land and housing delivery has been beneficial in some cases, but without forms of support and protection, millions of poor households will be excluded and left to fend for themselves in the diminishing number of available spaces in the world’s cities.
What are informal settlements?
Informal settlements, as prevalent neighbourhood types in rapidly transforming cities, possess high-density and heterogeneous morphological patterns. They provide affordable housing and employment opportunities for low-income populations while also supporting cities' operation and development.
What percentage of the population lives in informal settlements in Ahmedabad?
In Ahmedabad, about 40% of the population resides in informal settlements. A substantial number of the urban poor reside in these locations. The two dominant types of informal settlements are slums that have developed out of the illegal occupation of the marginal areas of the city by migrants and squatters, and chawls, which are residential units originally built for workers in the mills and factories. Most slum dwellers tend to settle along the waterways in the city, like Sabarmati River, on vacant land or in low-lying areas ( Bhatt, 2003 ).
What are the challenges of WSUD?
The (re)development and upgrading of informal settlement areas in a water-sensitive manner pose several challenges, such as limited budgets, increasing population, and a National Housing Policy advocating for only basic water supply and sanitation services for these areas. WSUD should no longer be the domain of the upper socioeconomic class as it is equally important to the poor communities in need of quantity and quality water. WSUD not only entails far more than retrofit of urban systems to be more water sensitive but also includes a social dimension to environmentally educate communities. As such, informal settlement development should attempt to “leapfrog” the stages through which the formal settlement areas have developed, thereby avoiding the need to retrofit these areas at some time in the future. Using water-sensitive technologies should also result in a range of secondary benefits for these communities, helping to address some of the misperceptions of authorities regarding the social advantages of WSUD. WSUD approaches should form part of national priorities, recognizing that advocating WSUD principles in policies will be confronted by challenges of density, scale of demand, and political sensitivities concerning the perceived quality of the engineering options it represents. The focus of providing WSUD in South Africa should be framed as a social component and justified in terms of equity and provision of services to all people ( Fisher-Jeffes et al., 2012 ).
What is the clash of rationalities in dealing with informal settlements in the global South?
Our study illustrates a clash of rationalities in dealing with informal settlements in the global South: the neoliberal visioning of a modern, globally competitive, and orderly city, and the right of city authorities and the private sector to “upgrade” the city and the rights of ordinary citizens for access to services, housing, space, and a decent life. Both positions offer promises of a better future but cannot guarantee that experience will be improved for all, particularly the poor. Neither approach provides much clarity about the social and spatial outcomes and the effects of (re)making place on broader political, economic, and social processes of the city.
What are the tenure problems in informal unplanned settlements and shacks?
More important, the tenure problems in informal unplanned settlements and shacks play a direct role in purchasing electrical appliances or other expensive investments in efficiency. Migrant workers continue to play a large role in many countries' urban communities.
What is Figure 19.6?
Figure 19.6. Informal Settlement and available service facilities for forced migrants. (a) Informal settlements in urban agricultural land and along the highways in Khulna. (b) Informal settlements in urban fringe and low-lying areas in Khulna. (c) Sanitation facilities for urban poor and the migrant residents in fringe and urban areas.
What is a squatter settlement?
Definition of a Squatter Settlement: A squatter settlement therefore, can be defined as a residential area which has developed without legal claims to the land and/or permission from the concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal or semi-legal status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate .
What are the characteristics of a squatter settlement?
Legal Characteristics: The key characteristic that delineates a squatter settlement is its lack of ownership of the land parcel on which they have built their house. These could be vacant government or public land, or marginal land parcels like railway setbacks or "undesirable" marshy land.
Why are squatters in cities?
There is no universal "quick-fix" solution that can solve all the problems of squatting in all parts of the developing world. Considering the inevitability of squatting, the need is primarily for a change in attitude towards squatting, squatters and squatter settlements. One such approach that has been receiving considerable attention from various government and public authorities has been the "enabling" approach, where instead of taking a confrontationist attitude, governments have strived to create an enabling environment, under which people, using and generating their own resources, could find unique local solutions for their housing and shelter problems.
What is settlement upgradation?
Settlement upgradation has been an option where a compromise has been reached by the land owner and on a sharing basis, the squatter has been allowed to continue on the land parcel, but with a significant upgradation of the settlement's infrastructure and services , including, in some cases, land leases or ownerships.
What is the purpose of squatting?
Abrams (1964) illustrates the process of squatting as a "conquest" of city areas for the purpose of shelter , defined both by the law of force and the force of law. Turner (1969) takes a positive outlook and portrays squatter settlements as highly successful solutions to housing problems in urban areas of developing countries. Payne (1977) similarly puts the development of squatter settlements in the overall perspective of urban growth in the third world and its inevitability. A vast number of case studies at the Habitat Conference at Vancouver in 1976 highlighted the conditions in squatter settlements, calling for a concerted and committed approach towards solving the problems.
What is a core group squatter?
The core group squatters are a small number of families who, almost overnight, occupy a piece of land and build a rudimentary and temporary shelter. Later, depending on the degree of threat of eviction, this may be upgraded to a permanent and more families may join this group.
Why do people squat?
The key question to be asked here is why do people squat? 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). External reasons include, high cost of land and other housing services; apathy and anti-pathy on the part of the government to assist them; high "acceptable" building standards and rules and regulations; loopsided planning and zoning legislation.
What is the process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area to?
Gentrification . A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class owner-occupied area. Greenbelt. A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.
What is annexation in the census?
Annexation. Legally adding land area to a city in the United States. Census Tract. An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are published; in urban areas, census tracks correspond roughly to neighborhoods. Concentric Zone Model.

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 …
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 (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa…
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 va...
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 …
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 (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa…
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…