A Century of State-Generated Migration “Crises”

• In Event: Political Crises and International Migration

Abstract

This paper critically engages with the “migration crisis” literature by examining the role of state-organized forced migration as a factor in crisis generation and response. In contrast to dominant perspectives on forced migration which treat the phenomenon as a political-humanitarian problem of global governance that states must respond to, we examine the role of geopolitical and strategic factors in states’ use of organized forced migration. Our arguments are based on data drawn from more than 300 already-identified cases of diplomatically-driven, managed or threatened incidents of organized forced migration. Cases include all identifiable and researchable threatened or actual population transfers, expulsions, population exchanges and returns since 1900. Our paper will outline the significance of organized forced migration in crisis generation and response; discuss some of the underlying geopolitical logics employed by states; and provide examples from case studies drawn from our data set-in-progress.

Authors

• Fiona B. Adamson, SOAS University of London

• Kelly M. Greenhill, Tufts and Harvard Universities