From Squatter Settlement to Suburb: The Transformation of Bathore, Albania

Abstract

This paper recounts the successful upgrading of Bathore, an informal settlement on government land, located in the outskirts of Tirana, the capital of Albania. Bathore was formed in the early 1990s by poor squatters, mostly from rural northern Albania, a region that became impoverished and lost most services after the fall of communism in 1990. The area that the squatters occupied lacked all infrastructure. However, the squatters built houses that were permanent structures of good quality, often multi-storey. These houses were mostly financed through the remittances of immigrants abroad. In mid-2000s, the Albanian government started taking steps to legalize squatter housing, and, subsequently, to equip the area with infrastructure. Now, Bathore is starting to resemble a middle-class-style suburb, if only in terms of physical appearance. This paper explores the roles of the central and local governments, the international financial institutions, a local NGO, and the local community in this achievement.