Forced to Remain in the Poor Areas: Venezuelan Migration in the Informal Housing Market in Lima, Perú.

South-South migration is a relatively new phenomenon. Unlike other regions (where access to housing for migrant groups primarily occurs through public housing, housing policies, or the formal rental market), in Latin America access to housing mainly happens through the informal market. This presentation explores the main characteristics of the informal housing market for migrants, migrants’ vulnerabilities, and the model of urban marginality it implies. We present the case of Lima (Peru), the main destination city for recent Venezuelan migration (approximately 1.2 million people in a city of about 11 million). Peru not only lacks experience in receiving international migration but also has significant levels of informality in employment, transportation, and housing. Indeed, the massive arrival of international migrants has spurred the growth of numerous informal housing units of varying types and qualities in the upper floors of the dwellings of local families.

Based on 67 interviews with migrants of different backgrounds (men and women; single individuals and families) in Lima, I reconstructed their housing trajectories, focusing on the problems they faced upon arrival, and in their following places of residence. I found several ways through which migrants are forced to remain in the informal housing market. Difficulties in obtaining updated documents, job vulnerability, and discrimination based on nationality lead them to remain in this informal circuit. While this is generally associated with high costs, poor-quality housing, exposure to conflicts with neighbors, and high levels of exploitation by landlords, this market also offers opportunities for negotiation and even the development of friendships with landlords. Furthermore, the model of migrant settlement arising from this recent urban development does not align with classical forms of spatial segregation (migrant neighborhoods or ethnic enclaves) but rather with a peculiar form of isolation and urban marginality.