Bibliotheken Online

Migration and security challenges in Yangon's informal settlements

The case of Hlaing Thayar township

Helene Maria Kyed

Buch

englisch

Kyed, Helene Maria (Verfasser/-in) DNB

DIIS Report

DIIS

Copenhagen

2017

31 p.

case study
development
violence
poverty
migration

he world is becoming increasingly urban. Already in 2007, the urban population exceeded the rural one and by 2035, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s population will be urban, according to the United Nations. While cities are primary centres of innovation, productive activity and wealth, they are also emerging as sites of intensified insecurity, violence and fragmentation between rich and poor areas. In fact, most of the growth of cities today happens in Africa and Asia and takes the form of informal and unplanned settlements. Such informal settlements emerge as natural growth. Accelerated rural to urban migration, sometimes combined with refugee influxes, overwhelm the states’ capacities and resources to meet housing needs, jobs in formal economies, services and infrastructure. The result is the development of massive slums where people live under dire conditions, without stable incomes and with meagre access to state benefits, recognition and protection. These conditions can create instability and crime, which are often reinforced by city and national governments’ negative attitudes towards informal settlements.

The case of Yangon’s informal settlements
In her report, DIIS Senior Researcher Helene Maria Kyed argues that the insecurity and crime that prevails in informal settlements is not alone caused by poverty, but also by the fact that the city and national governments predominantly treat informal migrants as illegitimate residents.

Helene Maria Kyed takes stock of the relationship between urbanization, migration and (in)security in Yangon, the largest city and commercial centre of Myanmar. The focus is Hlaing Htayar township, which is the fastest growing and most populated township in Yangon due to migration from the rural areas. The township has high rates of poverty, a very large informal settler population and is associated with high insecurity and crime when compared to other areas of Yangon. Despite new industries, economic growth, and job creation in Yangon city over the past few years, the vast majority of the migrants who settle in Hlaing Thayar are struggling to find formal jobs and tenure security. Few have legal documents and formal access to services, and many squat or live on illegally sold land. Importantly, they also face a constant fear of eviction, of being forcefully removed and bulldozed by the government’s security forces.

Evictions and threat of evictions, at larger and smaller scales, constitute the main tool to deal with the situation of mass migration into Yangon. Informal migrants are seen as obstacles to urban security and development. This hardliner approach continues despite the transition from military rule to a new democratically elected government in 2016. As recent as June 2017, 4,000 informal settlers were evicted and had their houses destroyed to give way to new high-end construction projects.

Feelings of insecurity can lead to crime
Based on in-depth interviews with informal migrants in Hlaing Thayar in January-March 2017, the report shows that the constant threat of evictions and lack of tenure security are creating high levels of mobility and feelings of insecurity. These conditions in turn create the grounds for crime, social disputes and lack of social cohesion within the informal settlements. Although the informal migrants get some help from kin, fellow villagers, and some religious and neighborhood leaders, such networks of support are unstable and often fraught with mistrust and an informal economy that create social disputes. Mistrust between neighbors and criminalization by city authorities are mitigating viable forms of self-organization to substitute for the lack of government services and protection. Simultaneously, the informal settlements are expanding through and somewhat sustained by informal forms of governance by local ‘big people’, including some government officials, who benefit from illegal land sales and informal fees for issuing documentation to the informal migrants.

Treating migrants as assets in urban economic growth
What does this situation mean for the security and stability of Yangon, where about half a million people out of a population of six million are living as informal settlers? Currently, there are no indications that any large scale, open conflict or uprisings will occur in the near future. However, the government’s hardliner approach will likely increase dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the current government among the growing migrant population. It also has the unintended side effect of breeding insecurity, which can increase criminality and eventually gang violence. To mitigate these effects, it is crucial that the government changes its negative attitude towards informal migrants and begins to view them instead as assets in boosting urban economic growth and development. This also means providing them with access to tenure security, legal documentation and low-interest loans, which can help the informal migrants to get formal jobs and stability. The many international aid organizations that are now working in Myanmar can aid the government in these endeavors.

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