The hidden costs and motives of land invasions
10 March 2021
“Squatting” in plain speech and “land invasions” in the language of officialdom, has wider economic consequences that are seldom aired in the media.
Our natural human sympathy assumes that the driving motive is the need for shelter by people who have nothing and would otherwise be compelled to sleep in the open in all weathers -- a cry for help, for attention, by the dispossessed.
While this can be true and evokes much sympathy in consequence, unfortunately, there can be more to it.
The practice of squatting is common in cities everywhere. Their bright lights and promise of plenty exert a magnetic attraction for those seeking to escape from grinding poverty, or a chance to start afresh. The motives of those who move are as varied as human nature. It makes them easy prey for the unscrupulous who encourage them to settle in flood plains; lets them believe they have purchased rights to land that belongs to other people or encourages them to settle close to industrial areas where the prospect of a job seems more likely.