Residential trajectories of immigrant homes living in slums

Case study in districts of Lampa and Maipú, Metropolitan Region, Chile

Abstract

In Chile, the presence of slums or informal settlements is one of the expressions most commonly associated with urban informality. They represent a housing access strategy that has been used by vulnerable groups who, for different reasons, have been excluded from the formal housing market. The case study is 274 homes of Chilean citizens and immigrants who reside in 17 slums located in the districts of Lampa and Maipú, in the Metropolitan Region. Information was gathered to characterize these households socioeconomically and analyze their internal and external migration movements, as well as to determine the probability of action that they have in order to find a definitive housing solution. It has been concluded that immigrant households don’t choose to live in slums directly, but they usually take approximately three years. On the other hand, the previous housing situation of these households is marked by different types of informality, renting without a contract being characteristic, and their trajectories between districts are broad, unlike Chilean households whose trajectories occur within of the same district. Finally, it is determined that when the horizon of permanence in the slum is longer, the probability of searching actively for a housing situation decreases strongly.