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Joe Slovo shanty town in Langa on the Cape Flats simmers after a fire (Cape Town, South Africa)

Shanty town near Tijuana, Mexico.

Cite Soleil, Haiti, 2002

The police crush another demonstration by the South African Shackdwellers' Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, 28 September 2007

Shanty towns (also called squatter camps, barrios, or favelas) are illegal or unauthorized settlements of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap plywood, corrugated metal, and sheets of plastic. Shanty towns, which are usually built on the periphery of cities, often do not have proper sanitation, electricity, or telephone services.

Shanty towns are mostly found in developing nations, or partially developed nations with an unequal distribution of wealth. In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city.

Shanty towns tend to develop on the outskirts of cities. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, shanty towns, often called "Hobo jungles," appeared in cities across North America because of massive unemployment. Some were nicknamed "Hoovervilles" because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then President Herbert Hoover, whose decisions were popularly thought to have caused the depression. Similarly in Canada, hobo jungles were dubbed "Bennettville" after Prime Minister Bennett.^{[citation needed]}

The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling, was in Ohio in 1820.^{[citation needed]} It may have been derived from the French Canadian word chantier, meaning hut in a lumber camp, from the French word for timberyard. Alternatively, it could have been derived from the Irish sean tigh, meaning "old house" or from the Nahuatl word chantli "home".

Shanty town residences are almost always built without a license. Since construction is informal and unguided by urban planning, there is a near total absence of formal street grids, numbered streets, sanitation networks, electricity, or telephones. Even if these resources are present, they are likely to be disorganized, old or inferior. Shanty towns also tend to lack basic services present in more formally organized settlements, including policing, medical services, and fire fighting. Fires are a particular danger for shanty towns because of the close proximity of buildings and flammability of materials used in construction.

Shanty towns usually have a high rates of crime, suicide, drug use, and disease. On the other hand, observer Georg Gerster has noted (with specific reference to the invasões of Brasilia), "squatter settlements [as opposed to slums], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus."^[1]

Shanty towns are present in a number of countries including South Africa (where they are often called squatter camps) or imijondolo, the Philippines (often called squatter areas), Argentina (where they are referred to as villas miseria), Venezuela (where they are known as barrios), Brazil (favelas), West Indies such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (Where they are known as shanty town) and Peru (where they are known as pueblos jóvenes). They are also incredibly common in Haiti, including Cite Soleil

In many countries there are now large movements of shanty town residents which often face severe state repression. For example in South Africa Abahlali baseMjondolo have become a significant political force in the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg and in Brazil the Movement of Workers Without a Roof (MTST) is very strong.

Many countries have a name for marginal settlements:

• Asentamientos (settlements) in Guatemala
• Bidonvilles in French-speaking countries
• Cantegriles in Uruguay
• Ciudades perdidas (lost cities) or Jacales in Mexico
• Colonias or Migrant camp along the Mexican-American border
• Favelas in Brazil
• Gecekondu in Turkey
• Katavlismos (campaments, referring to Roma settlements) in Greece
• Invasiones (invasions) in Ecuador and Colombia
• Khoshash in the Middle East
• Jhugi/Bustee in India
• Kachi abadi in Pakistan
• Kijiji in Kenya
• Mudduku in Sri Lanka
• Poblaciones Callampas (mushroom settlements), Poblas or Campamentos in Chile
• Chacarita in Paraguay
• Chabolas, rancheríos in Spain
• Pueblos jóvenes (young towns) or barriadas in Peru
• Ranchos or barrios in Venezuela
• Squatter camps or imijondolo in South Africa
• Villas miseria (poverty towns) in Argentina
• Bairro de Lata in Portugal
• Lušnynai in Lithuania
• Barrio in Dominican Republic
• Precario or tugurrio in Costa Rica
• Setinggan or Rumah Kongsi in Malaysia (A local movie changed its name to 'Sting Garden', to the plot that a poor girl living in setinggans trying to attract a wealthy boy's heart)
• Kartonsko naselje (cardboard settlement) in Serbia

Korogocho (Kenya) see korogocho.org Australia

• Ghetto
• Poverty
• Refugee shelter
• Slum
• Squatting
• Tent city
• Skid row

• Slate article about an economist proposing New Orleans to be reconstructed with shanties
• Website for a large movement of shanty town residents in South Africa
• Extreme Rich-Poor divides on Deputy-dog.com