Winning their place in the city: Squatters in Southeast Asian cities

Abstract

Variations in squatter mobilization and the structure of political elites are shown to be related to the integration of squatters into formal housing recent history of squatter acquisition of a place in the cities of Southeast Asia. The cities analyzed are Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Manila (the Philippines). Squatter activity in each one is analyzed from the Post-WW II period of the 1950's and 1960's, to the contemporary situation of 2015. Each of these cases can be characterized at the beginning of the period, as having large numbers of squatters and squatter settlements, with few or no adequate housing, municipal services, etc. Each one of them dominated by economic elites in the form of conglomerates. The analysis describes the initial conditions of squatters, major shifts and events during the last fifty or so years, and the different outcomes in the struggles for place in the cities. The analysis is based upon observations, interviews and institutional materials gathered by the author in the 1960's, 1970,s and 1980's and from interviews, reports and institutional data currently available on each case. The analysis in these six case studies show that a unified political elite, little or no squatter mobilization and government control or ownership of the land, were the most important institutional factors in integrating squatters into cities. Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur integrated all or most squatters into the formal housing of their cities.