Why Abandon Home? Dissent, Repression & Forced Migration

Abstract: Apart from being forced to by nature few Americans have, during your life time, picked up what they can carry and left behind their housing, possessions, jobs, and communities due to the belief that their physical person, property, or even life was at risk should they not do so.  Indeed, if we consider percentages, during your life time only a tiny fraction of the human beings on our planet have done so.  Yet, if we examine news coverage of violent political conflicts over the past 20, 30, 40, etc. years we will readily encounter stories speaking of hundreds, thousand, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands and, in a few cases, millions of people doing precisely that.  

Migration is part of the human experience and has been throughout recorded history and almost surely prior to that.  Forced Migration is the salacious, shocking "other side" of migration that is effectively "hidden in plain sight," largely ignored, but available for viewing by those who care to look.  Regrettably, the information available on this topic frequently views it through the lens of a morality play with a Manichean plot: evil politicians and/or dissidents victimize unsuspecting innocents.  What has scientific inquiry to offer?  This talk summarizes both what we know, and what we do not understand well, about this intriguing and tragic human process.

Brief Bio: Will H. Moore is a visiting research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame (2011-12) and a professor of political science at Florida State University.  Educated at the University of Colorado, Boulder he holds a BA in Economics (1984) and a PhD in Political Science (1991).  His research and teaching have focused on violent political conflict: protest and rebellion; coercion, repression, and human rights violations; cooperative and hostile foreign policy; the outcomes of those processes (e.g., forced migration); and the use of the scientific method to better illuminate and understand the processes therein.  In addition to his professional pursuits he gets frustrated with media coverage of the events he studies, dabbles with opponent scouting for football teams, enjoys live Blues, and generally wishes he spent more time in the mountains.  You may learn more about him at his website: http://tinyurl.com/WHMoore