Mexico's Shanty Towns: Colonias Populares and Asentamientos Irregulares

Informal settlements in Mexico are most commonly called colonias populares ("popular colonies") or asentamientos irregulares ("irregular settlements").

Characteristics

• Housing: Self-built, often starting as cardboard, laminate, or scrap wood, gradually replaced with brick/concrete.
• Services: Initially lacking legal electricity, piped water, sewage, paved roads, garbage collection.
• Location: Peripheral urban land—steep hillsides, floodplains, ejido (communal) land, or abandoned industrial zones.
• Population: Rural-to-urban migrants seeking work in the informal economy.

Evolution and Policy

Many colonias consolidate over decades. Residents organize, petition for services, and gain regularización (legal recognition), enabling infrastructure investment. Government programs (e.g., INFONAVIT, CONAVI) provide subsidized housing and upgrading, but demand vastly outpaces supply.

Scale

Millions of Mexicans live in such settlements. In Mexico City's metropolitan area alone, dozens of colonias populares house a significant share of the population.

Not "Slums"

While conditions are precarious, these are vibrant communities with strong social networks, informal economies, and incremental self-improvement—not merely zones of despair.