Autocrats' Strategies to Preventing the Spread of Democracy by Migrants

• In Event: Learning from Global Democratic Challenges and Innovations Mini-Conference III: Migration as Part of the Authoritarian Toolkit

Abstract

An increasingly large literature demonstrates that migrants from autocracies to democracies spread democratic norms back to their home country and help foment democratic change there. This ability to spread democracy is not unknown to autocrats. Given the possibility for the spread of democracy, how do autocrats strategically respond to this possibility? In this book chapter, we use several case studies, including China, Taiwan, Algeria, and Morocco, to illustrate that (1) autocrats understand the ability of migrants to spread democracy and (2) the strategies that states use to counteract migrants’ spread of democracy. We show that states use many strategies: preventing incorporation in the host state, censorship, intimidation, and incarceration. Together, this chapter demonstrates how autocratic states try to gain the benefits of migration without losing their control over society.

Authors

• Margaret E. Peters, University of California, Los Angeles

• Michael Miller, George Washington University