Examining formal and informal planning instruments for housing for migrants within a post-socialist country, Serbia

Abstract

Serbia has been facing migration and influx of refugees and internally displaced persons since the 1990s. At the same time, the country went through significant changes in the political and socio-economic regime, planning and urban development practice and urban land management, which had effects on development of housing solutions as well. Serbian planning system is influenced by its path dependency in relation to socialist era and later transitional stages. Moreover, it is directed towards adjusting to market economy and EU perspective, where various international influences were developed during the period of support through programs and projects of international assistance for the socio-economic integration of refugees. Some of these programs are still ongoing. The contribution of this paper is to offer basis for understanding the influences on development of both formal and informal planning instruments for housing solutions for refugees and internally displaced persons from 1990s to 2015, with Serbia being taken as an illustrative case. The nature of housing solutions is examined in relation to different state policies, concepts and planning practices, as well as systemic solutions in legal framework within particular focus on: introduction of different forms of ownership, regulation of norms and standards of planning, new institutional solutions, and treatment of housing as a public interest. Finally, this paper will demonstrate that in a transitional society, legal framework represents a prerequisite but not a guarantee of enforcement, where complexity of its operationalization is closely related to real political and socio-economic context.