Human rights organizations, equal opportunity, and violence against refugees
| Published date | 01 February 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13691481241227853 |
| Author | Naji Bsisu,Lacey Hunter,Jerry Urtuzuastigui |
| Date | 01 February 2025 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/13691481241227853
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2025, Vol. 27(1) 331 –348
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/13691481241227853
journals.sagepub.com/home/bpi
Human rights organizations,
equal opportunity, and violence
against refugees
Naji Bsisu1, Lacey Hunter1
and Jerry Urtuzuastigui2
Abstract
What factors influence levels of repression targeting refugee populations? In this paper, we
explore the efficacy of top-down and bottom-up approaches to mitigating host-state repression,
specifically highlighting the role of human rights organizations (HROs) and institutionalized equal
opportunity in influencing states’ decision to violently repress refugees. In so doing, we argue that
repression levels can be moderated through proper accommodation and integration of refugee
populations via the activities of HROs in addition to increased institutionalized equal opportunities
for displaced persons. Using a new dataset that captures state repression of refugee populations
together with a zero-inflated ordered probit model and an estimation technique that addresses
endogeneity, we find mixed support for our hypotheses.
Keywords
equal opportunity, forced migration, human rights, NGOs, repression
Forced migration and the plight of refugees1 have recently dominated much of the news
cycle, particularly the dangerous conditions refugees face when traveling to their destina-
tion. Julie Vitkovskaya, for example, wrote in the Washington Post how half way into the
year, 2016 was already on its way to having the highest death toll for migrants crossing
the Mediterranean Sea, with approximately 2500 refugees perishing on their way to Italy.2
Similarly, Seema Jilani wrote in the New York Times that the Mediterranean was the
deadliest migration route for refugees and forced migrations.3 In Germany, moreover,
there have been over 600 attacks on asylum-seekers and refugees in the first half of 2019
alone.4 From the deadly Mediterranean Sea crossings to the quality of camps in Southern
Europe and Manus Island to the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar, many news stories
are published every day illuminating the plight of refugees.
1Division of Social Sciences, Maryville College, Maryville, TN, USA
2Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Corresponding author:
Naji Bsisu, Division of Social Sciences, Maryville College, Maryville, TN 37804-5907, USA.
Email: naji.bsisu@maryvillecollege.edu
1227853BPI0010.1177/13691481241227853The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsBsisu et al.
research-article2024
Original Article
332The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 27(1)
Once refugees reach a host country, their ill-treatment does not necessarily stop.
Depending on the state in which refugees arrive, the harsh conditions and ill-treatment
many refugees face on their journeys are perpetuated. Upon arriving, refugees may face
issues accessing shelter, education, healthcare, and other accommodations. Despite many
similarities, Italy and Spain have adopted rather different strategies and attitudes regard-
ing migrants and refugees. While Italy used to be rather welcoming toward refugee popu-
lations, under the new leadership, they have begun to enact measures to prevent migrants
and refugees from entering their territory.5 Now, Spain has become the preferred destina-
tion of migrants and refugees coming from Africa and the Middle East as they have
shown a willingness to address this humanitarian crisis.6 Differences in attitudes and
treatment of refugee populations are not just limited to European states. For example,
refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon treat refugees quite differently, despite the fact that
the refugees in question are of the same origin. Even with all the attention given to refu-
gees in popular media today, the questions of why the treatment of refugees differs across
states and of how best to ensure the humane treatment of these populations by their
respective host state remains understudied.
Scholarship on refugees has focused on multiple issues, including the initial causes of
refugees, the treatment of refugees in the international system, the relationship between
refugee flows and conflict, as well as solutions to the global epidemic of forced migra-
tions. There are vast discrepancies in the ways in which host states respond to the pres-
ence of refugees, with some states resorting to repression, whereas others prove to be
much more accommodating. Several examples of these discrepancies will be highlighted
in the following sections; however, recent research has revealed a growing consensus that
host state repression increases as the number of refugees within a host state increases
(Fisk, 2016; Wright and Moorthy, 2018). Given that there is a direct and positive relation-
ship between the presence of refugees and repression, our aim is to discover the specific
conditions which determine why host states use repression when hosting refugees. Recent
research has explored certain causal mechanisms linking the presence of refugees and
increased host state repression that extend beyond the basic notion of refugee population
size, focusing on economic capacity (Wright and Moorthy, 2018) and integration within
the local community (Fisk, 2016). We aim to add to this body of research by arguing that
the use of repression targeting refugees can be mitigated through proper integration of the
refugee populations, a robust civil society sector, and institutionalized equal access to
pursue education, employment, and other opportunities.
This question is important and timely, since ascertaining the root causes behind the
relationship between repression and hosting refugees can help governments – as well as
international and domestic organizations – combat repressive behavior and potentially
alleviate the suffering of refugees and host populations across the world. Our research
will contribute to better understanding the effect of human rights organizations and insti-
tutionalized equal opportunity on the likelihood of a state responding toward refugees
with repression. In so doing, we explore and evaluate the relative effect of a top-down and
bottom-up approach, ultimately showing whether and how each method can lead to a
reduction in the threat perception of refugees and thus the willingness of states to use
violence against them. It should also be of interest to human rights scholars, who to date
have largely focused on state repression targeting their own citizens rather than refuge
populations.
The remainder of the article will begin with a brief discussion of the relevant literature
relating to refugees and repression, followed by our theoretical arguments and how they
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