Sociological study of the effect of informal settlements on social harms (case study: Kermanshah city)

The phenomenon of informal settlements can bring with it many social harms. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of informal settlements on the amount of social harms such as theft, divorce, suicide, and drugs in the city of Kermanshah.

The current research is an applied research in terms of its purpose. In terms of method, it is a descriptive research and it will be done as a survey; Because the required information is obtained from the current state of the statistical sample using a questionnaire. It is a researcher-made questionnaire of informal settlements and a standard questionnaire of social harms, which is set in 66 items. The statistical population of the present study includes 270,979 male and female residents of informal settlements in Kermanshah city in the year 2021. In this research, 384 were selected as sample members by random-cluster method.

The descriptive findings of the current research show that the reason for migration and choosing the neighborhood of most of the 160 respondents (42.7%) was their economic situation. Also, in the studied sample, 169 people (44.5%) agree to leave the place and 211 people (55.5%) oppose leaving the place, 241 people (63.6%) agree and 138 people (36.4%) oppose. To leave the place, they were on the condition of handing over land or housing, which was the reason for not wanting to leave the place of most of the respondents (151 (42.8%) being close to the workplace). Finally, regarding participation in activities to improve the status of their community during the past 5 years, 177 people (46.1%) participated in the activities and 202 people (53.3%) did not participate.

Based on the statistics and findings of the research, it can be concluded that the main problems of informal settlements are the lack of minimum facilities, which indicates poverty, lack of economic security and forced to migrate to this neighborhood. Addiction to cigarettes and drugs, history of theft, crime and prison or violence, suicide and divorce, all of these factors have come together and caused insecurities and caused social damage among the residents of this neighborhood. Considering that most of these people have migrated from the city to these marginal areas, this confirms that they did not have suitable living conditions and were forced to migrate to the outskirts of the cities with limited facilities and many problems.