Refugee commodification: the diffusion of refugee rent-seeking in the Global South

Abstract

Do states in the Global South learn from each other regarding the management of forced migration? Although research has shown that refugees have recently been recast as an economic benefit for non-Western host states, little scholarly work exists on whether and how such a normative change is adopted across regions. In this article, we identify the diffusion of refugee rent-seeking behaviour, namely the use of host states' geopolitical position as leverage to extract revenue from other states in exchange for maintaining refugees within their borders. We identify three types of diffusion -learning, cooperation and emulation -occurring at state, regional and international levels across the Global South. Drawing on a range of primary sources, we demonstrate the working of these three types across a range of empirical examples drawn from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Overall, we identify a rising trend in the commodification of forced migration across refugee rentier states, while highlighting the need for further interregional research on policy diffusion outside the Global North.

La Solidaridad o la Soledad? Cooperation and Tensions in the Regional State Response to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

“…The number of those displaced by the Venezuelan crisis comes second only to the Syrian Crisis (UNHCR, n.d.b). However, it has received less international reaction (Freier et al, 2021). Contributing factors may be that the direct impact of Venezuelan forced migration is experienced to a much lesser extent in North America and Europe, and that Venezuelans are not displaced by war or traditional conflict, making it complex to comprehend and classify their situation.…”

“…As Selee and Bolter argue (2021), temporary instruments still tend to provide fewer rights and less sense of permanence. Furthermore, there is also criticism that Colombia's portrayal of itself as a partner to the global North that cannot do it all alone ties into "rent-seeking behavior," which has become more common in refugee-hosting countries worldwide (Freier et al, 2021). In a later paper, Freir and Gauci argue that "if policy harmonization across Latin America led to the increased adoption and implementation of LGPs, the region could indeed become a global leader in refugee protection.…”

Leveraging the European Refugee Crisis: Forced Displacement and Bargaining in Greece's Bailout Negotiations

“…These range from stricter asylum laws and border patrols (Andreas and Snyder, 2000; Geddes and Scholten, 2016) or selective visa policies (Laube, 2019) to offering material support to third states willing to contain migrant and refugee populations within their borders (Bøås, 2021; Youngs and Zihnioğlu, 2021). The latter form part of broader processes of ‘refugee commodification’ in international politics (Freier et al ., 2021).…”

The perils of refugee rentierism in the post‐2011 Middle East

“…Security scholars have termed the use of refugees in international relations as “demographic bombs,” not without criticism (see a critical discussion in Marder, 2018). Aiming to shift focus on the rationale of refugee host states and to draw on non‐Western frameworks, this article employs the concept of refugee rentier states (Tsourapas, 2019; Freier et al, 2021), namely, refugee host states that seek to secure external economic and political concessions in return for continuing to maintain forcibly displaced communities within their borders.…”

“…Evidence from Jordan and Lebanon suggests that they wish to create self‐reliant states is not easy to implement. At the same time, we can identify a global diffusion of refugee rent‐seeking strategies across the Global South—as African, Latin American, and Asian states seek to secure economic concessions of a level similar to the ones afforded to Eastern Mediterranean states (on this, see Freier et al, 2021).…”