Mobile Homes and Caravans in the Algarve

Migrant Housing, Land Occupation, and Digital Mediation

Resumo

The article addresses the current housing crisis in Portugal during a period of extreme financialisation of the urban space. It focuses on the Algarve region, specifically Loulé and Albufeira, and stresses its particular context in recent years (2022-2025), marked by high immigration rates and rapid social and cultural transformation. The article explores informal strategies to housing access among disadvantaged migrants. Due to the shortage of affordable accommodation, many of these migrants have occupied rural plots with mobile homes and caravans. These practices, in turn, have introduced new urban-rural dynamics with profound impacts. The central objectives of this investigation are: to identify recent trends in informal housing access by disadvantaged migrants, both in Loulé and Albufeira, following its greater visibility; to examine their experiences with these informal housing practices and their consequences; and to explore digital communication that supports the informal housing market while at the same time shaping specific public discourses about the issue. Drawing on an interthematic approach that combines urban studies, migration, and digital fields, the article provides both conceptual and empirical insights for analysing socio-spatial and socio-digital practices. It includes a paradigmatic case study, the Guia Campsite, illuminating the precariousness and deprivation of migrant housing in the Algarve region and their digital representation. Conclusions show that migrant housing informality in the Algarve emerges from the interaction between structural housing shortages, restrictive land regulation and digital mediation. Mobile homes and caravans function as adaptive housing strategies but also reproduce new forms of vulnerability, speculation and exclusion. Digital platforms simultaneously facilitate access to informal housing, shape public narratives and reinforce socio-spatial inequalities. The findings highlight the need to reconcile housing rights, territorial regulation and spatial justice in peripheral regions.