Squatters, vulnerability and adaptability of urban poor in a small island developing state: the context of Fiji Islands

Abstract

Poverty and vulnerability are closely intertwined. The poor are more vulnerable socially, economically and environmentally. Vulnerability is location and context –specific and the degree of vulnerability varies widely between countries, cities, localities within cities and between communities/ households. The vulnerability of poor can be understood through a vulnerability- adaptability framework and by analyzing the dialectic relationships between the ‘external’/ structural and ‘internal’ or adaptability/ coping dimensions of vulnerability. A livelihood and asset-vulnerability approach explains access to assets helps the poor reducing their vulnerabilities. The adaptability capacity of poor households to cope with vulnerability is limited because of fewer assets available to them. The more assets they control, less vulnerable they are. The ‘social capital’ plays crucial role in reducing vulnerability of poor. Poverty vulnerability relationships are critical in structurally constrained, poorly resourced and environmentally vulnerable small Island Developing State such as Fiji Islands. Urban squatters, the symptom of poverty, located mainly on environmentally hazardous sites are the most vulnerable population groups in these countries. They are vulnerable to global as well as local environmental changes and to the socio-economic burdens. The paper exemplifies a vulnerable migrant population group such as squatters in an island’s urban setting. It brings out the inter-linkages between poverty and vulnerability and their spatial manifestations in squatter settlements in a small island developing Island City such as Suva, Fiji Islands. It also identifies factors contributing to their vulnerabilities and explores various adaptation/coping strategies by the poor in minimising vulnerability.

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