Colonia (United States)

This article is about informal border-communities in the United States. For other uses, see Colonia.
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In the United States, a colonia is a type of unincorporated, low-income, slum area located along the Mexico–United States border region that emerged with the advent of shanty towns.[1]

The colonias consist of peri-urban subdivisions of substandard housing lacking in basic services such as potable water, electricity, paved roads, proper drainage, and waste management.[1][2] Often situated in geographically inferior locations, such as former agricultural floodplains, colonias suffer from associated issues like flooding.[3]

Furthermore, urbanization practices have amplified the issues, such as developers stripping topsoil from the ground to subdivide land, and the resulting plains then become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease. Traditional homeownership financing methods are rare among colonia residents and so the areas consist of ramshackle housing units that are built incrementally with found material on expanses of undeveloped land.[4] Colonias have a predominant Latino population, and 85 percent of those Latinos under the age of 18 are United States citizens.[3] The U.S.[clarification needed] has viewed border communities as a place of lawlessness, poverty, backwardness, and ethnic difference.[1]

Despite economic development, liberalization, intensification of trade, the strategic geographic location of the southern U.S. border region does not stop it from being one of the poorest in the nation.[1] Most cases had shown that its communities formed after landowners illegally sold and subdivided rural lands, often to buyers who did not understand the terms under which this land was being sold. The contract for deed through which plots were offered by land developers often had false promises that utilities would be installed.[2]

The majority of the communities have no water infrastructure and lack wastewater or sewage services.[3][5] Where sewer systems exist, there are no treatment plants in the area, and untreated wastewater is dumped into arroyos and creeks that flow into the Rio Grande or the Gulf of Mexico.[3]

More than 2,000 colonias are identified within the U.S. The highest concentration is in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, with others in New Mexico, Arizona, and California.[6][1] Evidence suggests that there are more than 1,800 designated colonias in Texas, around 138 in New Mexico, 77 in Arizona, and 32 in California.[7][needs update] These settlements are part of an informal sector or informal economy that is not bound by the structures of government regulations within labor, tax, health and safety, land use, environmental, civil rights, and immigration laws.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Larson, Jane E. (2002). "Informality, Illegality, and Inequality". Yale Law & Policy Review. 20 (1): 137–182. ISSN 0740-8048. JSTOR 41308519. LCCN 83646346. OCLC 9586836. The United States–Mexico border historically has been characterized by its isolation from the core of both nations.
  2. ^ a b United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. State Community Block Grants: Colonias. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved March 6, 2014
  3. ^ a b c d Neal, D. E., Famira, V. E., & Miller-Travis, V. (2010). Now is the Time: Environmental Injustice in the U.S. and Recommendations for Eliminating Disparities (pp. 48–81). Washington DC: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
  4. ^ Dabir, S. (2001). Hardship and hope in the border colonias. Journal of Housing & Community Development, 58(5), 31.
  5. ^ Vanderslice, James (2011). "Drinking Water Infrastructure and Environmental Disparities: Evidence and Methodological Considerations". American Journal of Public Health. 101 (Suppl 1): S109–S114. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300189. PMC 3222486. PMID 21836110.
  6. ^ "Colonia List". www.hudexchange.info. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  7. ^ Mukhija, Vinit; Monkkonen, Paavo (2007). "What's in a Name? A Critique of 'Colonias' in the United States". International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 31 (2): 475–488. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00719.x.