The face of urban poverty explaining the formation of informal settlements- The case study of Iran, Kazerun City

Despite the remarkable and rapid growth of economy in Asia during the past 10 years, poverty has still remained as a major problem in the region leading to a geographic shift in the location of poor populations: Poverty has been urbanizing. Over 900 million of the world’s poor still live in Asia and in this regard, Kazerun in Iran, as an Asian and developing city is not exceptional. According to the last National Census (2007), Kazerun is housing to over 80 thousand people. Nearly, 1⁄5 of the city population live in neglected settlements most with illegal building structures, substandard housing and insecure tenure. In this region, urban poverty plays an undeniable role in the pattern of city residency and shaping of informal settlements, not only for the rural-urban migrants but also for the city dwellers. In other words, being economically unfortunate has drawn some of the city inhabitants to live in poor areas. Moreover, they suffer from all aspects of urban poverty: cultural, political, provision of public infrastructures and so on which are all due to the lack of income that has forced them to live in poor districts.
Key words: population, urban poverty, informal settlements