Human rights organizations, equal opportunity, and violence against refugees

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.