A squatter settlement refers to ‘An area of usually unauthorized, makeshift housing, generally at the edge of a Third World city, and forming up to three-quarters of its area.’ (Oxford Dictionary of Geography, Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004). In 2001, 924 million people in the world lived in squatter settlements (UN, 2003, cited by ‘Bulgarian Policies towards the Roma Housing Problem and Roma Squatter Settlements’, 2007). In 2011 a survey showed that one out of ten people on the planet live in an urban squatter settlements (‘Urban Survivors: A Journey through the Worlds Slums’, 2011).
Despite these shocking figures, it appears the problem is only growing due to the rapidly increasing levels of urbanisation. For example, in Bulgaria, a slow moving developing country, 72.5% of the population today live in urban areas while the other mere 27.5% live in the country (Bulgarian Population Census, 2011). A 2006 article by Barney Cohen stated ‘By 2007, for the first time in human history, more people in the world will be living in cities and towns than will be living in rural areas and by 2017 the developing world is likely to have become more urban in character than rural’ (‘Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability’, Committee on Population, National Research Council). Such an imbalance in population density leads to huge urban issues such as: criminal activity, pollution, overpopulation, depleting resources, poverty and the topic that I am going to discuss- the spread of urban squatter settlements. This imbalance in the population density in Third-World countries (Calcutta ranges between 800-1000 people per hectare compared to North American which on average is 70. ‘S...
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...urnal of Humanities and Social Science Invention ISSN (online). Vol 2., Issue 3, 48-54, March 2013.
6. UN HABITAT. (2010). ‘Informal settlements and Finance in Daar Es Salaam, Tanzinia’. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2010. Nairobi.
Websites:
1. Doctors without borders. (2010) ‘Urban Survivors: A Journey through the Worlds Slums’. [internet]. Medicins Sans Frontieres. Dublin, Ireland. Available from: http://www.msf.ie/urban-survivors-journey-through-worlds-slums?gclid=COj94Ne8hbwCFRSWtAodqVAAwA
2. National Statistical Institute. (2014). ‘Population and Demographic Processes’. [internet]. National Statistical Institute. Bulgaria. Available from: http://www.nsi.bg/en/content/6593/population-and-demographic-processes
3. ‘Roma in Eastern Europe’. (2010) [internet]. Available from: http://www.faqs.org/minorities/Eastern-Europe/Roma-in-Eastern-Europe.html