Urban squatters are amongst the most exposed social groups in the peripheral economies of Southeast Asia. The main concern of the paper is with the extent to which squatters, as a marginalised and exposed group, represent part of an emerging Third World proletariat. What has been the effect on the social order of Southeast Asian cities of the pro cesses that exclude groups of the urban poor from the benefits of devel opment yet integrate them into the same system? Using data from extensive fieldwork in nine Peninsular Malaysian squatter settlements the occupational structure and income earning patterns of squatters is analysed, focusing on the relationships between these variables, the system of social stratification and social relations of production. The data illustrate that squatters not only provide labour directly to capitalist activity but also help support and sustain such enterprise in a number of ways. The conceptual and heuristic usefulness of the notion of 'proletarian' is also examined in the Third World context, thus promoting discussion on the part played by different sections of the labour force and on inter and intra-class conflicts under conditions of contemporary Southeast Asian urbanisation.
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