Gentrification and its Impact on the Stratification of Urban Bottom Laborers

The Case Study on Street Vendors in Manila

Abstract

  This paper reviews the urban bottom labor of developing cities from the case study on street vendors in Manila, Philippines. In Japan and other industrialized countries, restructuring of the labor market under economic globalization and the increasing number of the poor in a new urban context have been intensively discussed in recent years. Under the global neo-liberal government policy, informalization of labor and gentrification of public space have been observed in cities all over the world. In Manila, the use of public space has been restricted by the local and national governments. As a result, many people who used to make their living on the streets are losing their source of income. From this point of view, this paper clarifies the impact of urban development on the street vendors. Street vendors have been disregarded as “informal” jobs in terms of its unregulated forms for government. Moreover, they are targeted for exclusion in urban planning. However, in a recent trend, government and business owners are taking over street business as “formal” street vendors. As a result, the study shows the stratification of urban bottom laborers. All data and information for this paper were gathered between September 2013 and March 2016.