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This article seeks to demonstrate the operating modes, scope and impacts of upgrading and legalization policies through some case studies in the Arab world and more notably in Egypt. Starting with a focus on social and normative uses of 'slum' vocabulary, this article shows the effectiveness of local and international idioms on public policy development. The next step is to deconstruct some intentional and non-intentional effects of such secure land policies, thus underlining their limits and the reasons for their exclusively local scope. This raises the question of the feasibility and realism of land titling programs as a universal solution to precarious housing and settlements. What, then, is their contribution to monitoring land and housing dynamics ?