Poverty in Peripheral Informal Settlements in Mexico City: the Case of Magdalena Contreras, Federal District
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POVERTY IN PERIPHERAL INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN MEXICO CITY: THE CASE OF MAGDALENA CONTRERAS, FEDERAL DISTRICT ADRIÁN G. AGUILAR & FLOR LÓPEZ GUERRERO Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Institute of Geography, Circuito Exterior, CU04510, DF., Mexico. E-mails: [email protected]; ffl[email protected] Received: October 2011; accepted November 2012 ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the difficult economic situation in Mexico over recent years and the increasing disadvantages in irregular settlements that are found on the periphery of the Federal District. The focus is on informal settlements in the Magdalena Contreras Delegation, a peripheral municipality where the research team applied 719 question- naires to the inhabitants. The results offer an up-to-date socio-economic analysis of the popula- tion. We are also in a position to suggest answers to the following questions: to what extent communal lands with a high ecological value act as territorial reserves for irregular settlements?; how do poverty levels in these settlements affect the consolidation process in terms of housing quality and access to public services?; how much heterogeneity is there inside irregular settlements and what is the level of poverty in these settlements and how grave is the situation? Key words: Informal settlements, urban poverty, precarious conditions, Mexico City, peri-urbanisation THE URBANISATION PROCESS AND and inequality. In this paper, we want to under- INFORMAL HUMAN SETTLEMENTS line three issues related to informal human settlements (IHS): The limited capacity of the urban economy in 1. The failure of urban policies to meet the the cities of many developing countries has needs of HIS: the persistence of informal failed to satisfactorily meet the challenge of cre- human settlements is also the result of ating jobs and providing housing and services to the failure of local government housing all new urban inhabitants. In the face of such policy, urban planning regulations and shortcomings, a large proportion of the poor the lack of supply systems for urban ser- have to resort to the informal sector to secure vices that are geared to meeting basic employment. Moreover, many of the poor find needs. (McGranahan et al. 2008; Smolka & themselves obliged to obtain a plot of land ille- Larangeira 2008; Winchester 2008). In gally in order to build their home in informal other words, there has been a lack of politi- human settlements (Calderon Cockburn 2006; cal will to mitigate this problem in a compre- McGranahan et al. 2008; Smolka & Larangeira hensive fashion and on a large scale, and to 2008). The growth of these settlements is a attack the structural causes of illegality, serious issue in the face of increasing urbanisa- social insecurity, and the environmental tion and the prevailing conditions of poverty degradation associated with these settle- Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2013, DOI:10.1111/tesg.12012, Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 359–378. © 2013 The Authors Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2013 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 360 ADRIÁN G. AGUILAR & FLOR LÓPEZ GUERRERO ments. These factors point to a failure of ILLEGAL LAND OCCUPATION AND conventional approaches to improving IHS. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN 2. The peripheralisation of informality: low MEXICO CITY incomes among the poor have contributed to socio-spatial segregation within the urban Mexico City is the country’s capital city and its area. In Latin America, the effect of this largest metropolis. Mexico’s 2010 Population tendency has been to relegate low-income Census recorded an official total of 20.1 million sectors to peripheral zones where land costs inhabitants in the Mexico City Metropolitan are lower. This, in turn, exacerbates the Zone.2 Between 2000 and 2010, the average segregation of the poorest social strata annual population growth rate for the entire (Winchester 2008; see also Sabatini et al. city was 0.9 per cent. Nevertheless, when this 2001; Rodríguez and Arriagada 2004; average is analysed from a territorial, central Janoschka 2005; Ariza & Solís 2009). The city/periphery perspective, the results show tendency towards the peripheralisation of that demographic growth has been somewhat poverty and informality in large cities unequal. Whereas in the central zones of the favours the existence of IHS because land is city the rate of growth was much slower than the cheap because it lacks proper infrastructure average, and even negative, some peripheral and is located far from the central city. The municipalities that have recently been settled IHS in peri-urban areas have become a by the poor have population growth rates as prevalent and visible manifestation of urban three to five times higher than the average for poverty. the city as a whole (Aguilar 2008). 3. The multidimensional nature of intense dis- Gradually, the number of IHS on Mexico advantages in IHSs: these settlements pose a City’s periphery has multiplied because of a multidimensional problem where the accu- lack of cheap housing alternatives for the poor mulation of disadvantages in each area has in more central areas, and also because of the specific characteristics, and can aggravate availability of very inexpensive land which lacks the levels of poverty in the population. even minimal services. Settlements of this type Among the different disadvantages that can have been cropping up in the urban area since be identified in IHS the following six are the second half of the twentieth century. prevalent:1 (i) lack of basic services; (ii) During this time there has been a lack of poli- poor-quality housing; (iii) overcrowding; cies for addressing the housing needs of the (iv) unhealthy and hazardous living condi- urban poor and this process has been steadily tions; (v) insecurity of land tenure; and, (vi) continuing. This issue has been addressed in poverty and social exclusion. In the worst different studies published in recent decades cases, all of these features can be found in (see Iracheta 1984; Aguilar 1987; Pezzoli 1998; one informal settlement. The absence Ward 1998; Varley 2006). and/or presence of these variables give The local government has found it necessary rise to a high degree of heterogeneity in to adopt a position of tolerance in the face of living conditions in these IHS, and here irregular urbanisation that has involved both we are referring both to intra- and private land, ejido and communal lands.3 Subse- inter-heterogeneity. quently, and as a reaction to the persistence of IHS, the local government has had to resort to Thus, the main interest of this paper is to land tenure regularisation as an ex post solution demonstrate that the recent severe economic to the problem. The main effect of legalisation situation in Mexico City over the last two has been to provide an incentive to the poor to decades has affected the living conditions of occupy more of this type of land, leading to an the poor and therefore the possibility of con- increase in the number of informal settlements solidating the construction of their houses; (see Tomas 1997; Azuela 1997; Duhau 1998; additionally there has been a marked accumu- Ward 1998). lation of disadvantages related to social Recent economic tendencies in Mexico services that maintain settlers in extreme indicate that worker’s wages, both in the formal poverty levels. and informal sectors, have deteriorated signifi- © 2013 The Authors Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2013 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG POVERTY IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN MEXICO CITY 361 Table 1. Mexico: level of poverty in the metropolitan areas. Level of Poverty, 2008–2010 Types of Poverty EVALUA a 2008 EVALUA 2010 Population % Population % 1. Absolute Poverty 6,634,156 15.10 8,167,525 18.03 2. Intense Poverty 8,125,183 18.49 9,577,303 21.14 3. Extreme Poverty 14,759,339 33.59 17,744,828 39.18 4. Moderate Poverty 16,340,544 37.19 16,157,753 35.67 5. No-absolute Poverty 24,465,727 55.69 25,735,056 56.82 6. Total Poverty 31,099,883 70.79 33,902,581 74.85 Total population 43,934,226 100.00 45,295,527 100.00 Types of Poverty CONEVAL b 2008 CONEVAL 2010 Food Poverty 7,386,444 10.76 8,873,963 12.59 Capacities Poverty 11,972,004 17.44 14,089,457 19.99 Patrimony Poverty 27,548,420 40.14 32,088,922 45.53 Notes : a EVALUA: Refers to the Evaluation Council for Social Development of the Federal District Calculated for Metropolitan Areas: cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, excluding the Federal District b CONEVAL: Corresponds to the National Council for Evaluation of the Social Development Policy Calcu- lated for Urban Areas: towns with more than 15,000 inhabitants. Sources : http://www.evalua.df.gob.mx/ http://www.coneval.gob.mx/cmsconeval/rw/pages/medicion/Pobreza_2010/Anexo_estadistico.es.do cantly. In addition, the distribution of wages number of working hours per worker; a reduc- has become more unequal and returned to the tion in consumption and modification of con- levels registered for the 1970s. This is a result of sumption patterns; and the intensification of the processes of neoliberal economic restruc- the use of social networks (Gonzalez de la turing that have been present since the second Rocha et al. 2004). half of the 1980s, the reduction of the public The different credits that are available for system of social protection, and the multiplica- obtaining a ‘social interest’ home are generally tion of precarious and informal ways of enter- not accessible to the urban poor as loan ing the labour market (Portes & Hoffman 2003; requirements include formal employment. Gonzalez de la Rocha et al. 2004). Even where the poor have a formal sector wage, One consequence of these tendencies is for it is too low to qualify for a loan for housing.