Government Responses to Internal and International Displacement

Displacement within and across borders is a growing global challenge and the most prevalent form of violence during armed conflict. Scholars have established that displacement is not simply a negative side effect of other forms of violence, but is often the result of government and armed groups' political and military strategies. Similarly, state responses to displacement are shaped by governments’ political goals. The Government Responses to Internal and International Displacement (GRIID) project develops a new conceptualization of government response that incorporates both de jure policies and de facto practices, and how liberal or restrictive they are. We integrate the two dimensions to illustrate how governments with de jure liberal policies may engage in de facto restrictive practices, what we call a liberal inconsistent response; and conversely, de jure restrictive policies may exist in conjunction with de facto liberal practices, what we call restrictive inconsistent. The approach provides the tools to move beyond a focus on implementation gaps, to include responses to internally displaced people as well as refugees, and to identify tactics governments engage in to develop inconsistent responses. We are looking for partners working in select African and Middle East countries to develop and implement case studies focused on understanding how states govern the displaced -- especially internal displacement - how these approaches have changed over time, what drives them, and how they shape displacement-related dynamics and related political, economic, and social outcomes.