Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:57:23.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Effect of Religious Restrictions on Forced Migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2014

Melanie Kolbe*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens
Peter S. Henne*
Affiliation:
Pew Research Center
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Melanie Kolbe, Department of International Affairs, University of Georgia, Candler Hall, Athens, Georgia30602. E-mail: mkolbe@uga.edu
Peter S. Henne, Pew Research Center, 1615 L Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036. E-mail: phenne@pewresearch.org

Abstract

What is the impact of religious repression on forced migration? While current and historical cases highlight the significance of state-sponsored religions repression, existing quantitative studies on forced migration have not sufficiently addressed the role of religion as a determinant of flight. We argue that religious repression undermines the quality of life, quality of religious observance, and physical integrity of religious communities, and therefore increases incentives to leave. We test this through a quantitative analysis of forced migration data from 1990 to 2008 and several measures of religious repression, using a negative binomial regression. We find that state-driven religious repression, in particular religious bans, tends to increase forced migration. These findings contribute to the body of forced migration literature and the study of religion and politics by demonstrating the significant effects religious repression has on this aspect of world politics.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adhikari, Prakash. 2012. “The Plight of the Forgotten Ones: Civil War and Forced Migration.” International Studies Quarterly 56: 590606.Google Scholar
Adhikari, Prakash. 2013. “Conflict-Induced Displacement, Understanding the Causes of Flight.” American Journal of Political Science 57: 8289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aga Khan, Sadruddin. 1981. “Study on Human Rights and Massiv Exodus.” In Special Report to the Commission on Human Rights, 38th Session: United Nations Economic and Social Council.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Devleeschauwer, Arnaud, Easterly, William, Kurlat, Sergio, and Wacziarg, Romain. 2003. “Fractionalization.” Journal of Economic Growth 8: 155194.Google Scholar
Apodaca, Claire. 1998. “Human Rights Abuses: Precursor to Refugee Flight?Journal of Refugee Studies 11: 8093.Google Scholar
Banchoff, Thomas. 2008. Religious Pluralism, Globalization and World Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bernard, William S. 1976. “Immigrants and Refugees: Their Similarities, Differences, and Needs.” International Migration 14: 267280.Google Scholar
Casanova, Jose. 1994. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cheibub, José Antonio, Gandhi, Jennifer, and Vreeland, James Raymond. 2010. “Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited 2010.” https://sites.google.com/site/joseantoniocheibub/datasets/democracy-and-dictatorship-revisited (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Davenport, Christian A. 2007. “State Repression and Political Order.” Annual Review of Political Science 10: 123.Google Scholar
Davenport, Christian A., Moore, Will H., and Poe, Steven C.. 2003. “Sometimes You Just Have to Leave: Domestic Threats and Forced Migration, 1964-1989.” International Interactions 29: 2755.Google Scholar
Driessen, Michael D. 2010. “Religion, State, and Democracy: Analyzing Two Dimensions of Church-State Arrangements.” Politics and Religion 3: 5580.Google Scholar
Edwards, Scott. 2009. The Chaos of Forced Migration: A Means of Modeling Complexity for Humanitarian Ends. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2008. A World Survey of Religion and the State. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2011. “Building Composite Measures of Religion and State.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 7: 139.Google Scholar
Gibney, Mark, Apodaca, Claire, and McCann, J.. 1996. “Refugee Flows, the Internally Displaced and Political Violence (1908–1993): An Explanatory Analysis” In Whither Refugee? The Refugee Crisis: Problems and Solutions, ed. Schmid, A. Leiden: Ploom, 4566.Google Scholar
Gibney, Mark, Cornett, Linda, and Wood, Reed W.. 2013. Political Terror Scale 1976–2008 http://www.politicalterrorscale.org (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Wallensteen, Peter, Eriksson, Mikael, Sollenberg, Margareta, and Strand, Håvard. 2002. “Armed Conflict 1946–2001: A New Dataset.” Journal of Peace Research 39: 615637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A., Bates, Robert H., Epstein, David L., Robert Gurr, Ted, Lustik, Michael B., Marshall, Monty G., Ulfelder, Jay, and Woodward, Mark. 2010. “A Global Model for Forecasting Political Instability.” American Journal of Political Science 54: 190208.Google Scholar
Goździak, Elżbieta M., and Shandy, Dianna J.. 2002. “Editorial Introduction: Religion and Spirituality in Forced Migration.” Journal of Refugee Studies 15: 129135.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian J., and Finke, Roger. 2007. “Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies.” American Sociological Review 72: 633658.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian J., and Finke, Roger. 2011. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hakovirta, Harto. 1986. Third World Conflicts and Refugeeism: Dimension, Dynamics and Trends of the World Refugee Problem. Helsinki: Finnish Society of Sciences.Google Scholar
Hassner, Ron E. 2003. “To Halve and to Hold: Conflict over Sacred Space and the Problem of Indivisibility.” Security Studies 12: 133.Google Scholar
Henne, Peter S. 2012. “The Ancient Fire: Religion and Suicide Terrorism.” Terrorism and Political Violence 24: 3860.Google Scholar
Henne, Peter S. 2013. “The Domestic Politics of International Religious Defamation.” Politics and Religion 6: 512537.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Michael C. 2009. “Long Time Going: Religion and the Duration of Crusading.” International Security 34: 162193.Google Scholar
Kunz, E. F. 1973. “The Refugee in Flight: Kinetic Models and Forms of Displacement.” International Migration Review 7: 125146.Google Scholar
MAR. 2009. Minorities at Risk Project. College Park, MD: Center for International Development and Conflict Management.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Robert Gurr, Ted, and Harff, Barbara. 2014. “Dataset and Coding Guidelines.” Center for Global Policy http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Melander, Erik, and Öberg, Magnus. 2006. “Time to Go? Duration Dependence in Forced Migration.” International Interactions 32: 129152.Google Scholar
Melander, Erik, Öberg, Magnus, and Hall, Jonathan. 2009. “Are ‘New Wars’ More Atrocious? Battle Severity, Civilians Killed and Forced Migration before and after the End of the Cold War.” European Journal of International Relations 15: 505536.Google Scholar
Moghadam, Assaf. 2008/2009. “Motives for Martyrdom: Al-Qaida, Salafi Jihad, and the Spread of Suicide Attacks.” International Security 33: 4678.Google Scholar
Moore, Will H., and Shellman, Stephen M.. 2004. “Fear of Persecution: Forced Migration, 1952–1995.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 48: 723745.Google Scholar
Moore, Will H., and Shellman, Stephen M.. 2006. “Refugee or Internally Displaced Person?: To Where Should One Flee?Comparative Political Studies 39: 599622.Google Scholar
Moore, Will H., and Shellman, Stephen M.. 2007. “Whither Will They Go? A Global Study of Refugees' Destinations, 1965–1995.” International Studies Quarterly 51: 811834.Google Scholar
Neumayer, Eric. 2005. “Bogus Refugees? The Determinants of Asylum Migration to Western Europe.” International Studies Quarterly 49: 389409.Google Scholar
Nexon, Daniel H. 2009. The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires and International Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2014. Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2007. “Explaining the Political Ambivalence of Religion.” American Political Science Review 101: 505525.Google Scholar
PITF. 2014. Political Instability Task Force Problem Dataset. Arlington, VA: Center for Global Policy.Google Scholar
Rubin, Jacqueline H., and Moore, Will H.. 2007. “Risk Factors for Forced Migrant Flight.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 24: 85104.Google Scholar
Schmeidl, Susanne. 1997. “Exploring the Causes of Forced Migration: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis, 1971–1990.” Social Science Quarterly 78: 284308.Google Scholar
Smith, Christian. 1996. “Correcting a Curious Neglect, or Bringing Religion Back.” In Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism, edited by Smith, Christian. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smyser, W.R. 1987. Refugees: Extended Exile. New York, NY: Praeger.Google Scholar
Steele, Abbey. 2011. “Electing Displacement: Political Cleansing in Apartadó, Colombia.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 55: 423445.Google Scholar
Themnér, Lotta, and Wallensteen, Peter. 2013. “Armed Conflict, 1946–2012.” Journal of Peace Research 50: 509521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toft, Monica D. 2007. “Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War.” International Security 31: 97131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toft, Monica D., Philpott, Daniel, and Shah, Timothy. 2011. God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
UCDP. 2013. “Uppsala Conflict Data Program 2010.” http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/datasets (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2007. “Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons: Part I: Foundations of IDP Protection. Chapter 1: The Fundamentals of Protection.” http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=search&docid=47949ec92&query=idp%20definition (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2010. “Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.” http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2012. UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database.” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a013eb06.html (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Vreeland, James R. 2008. “The Effect of Political Regime on Civil War: Unpacking Anocracy.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 52: 401425.Google Scholar
WB. 2013. “World Bank Open Data.” http://data.worldbank.org (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Wood, Reed W., and Gibney, Mark. 2010. “The Political Terror Scale (PTS): A Re-Introduction and a Comparison to CIRI.” Human Rights Quarterly 32: 367400.Google Scholar
WVS. 2013. “World Values Survey Data.” http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org (Accessed on July 30, 2014).Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide R., Suhrke, Astri, and Aguayo, Sergio. 1989. Escape from Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Devleoping World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Kolbe and Henne Supplementary Material

Supplementary Appendix

Download Kolbe and Henne Supplementary Material(File)
File 1.2 MB