Episode 61: The Weaponization of Migration

Global in the Granite State

Over the past couple of years the idea of weaponizing migration has come to the forefront, particularly as the current case of Russia enabling migrants to access the Russia Finnish border and Belarus using travel agents to bring migrants to their border with Poland in 2021. However, this "hybrid warfare tactic", as several targeted states have termed it is not something new, it is instead a well worn path used by state and nonstate actors for centuries. To get a better understanding of what weaponized migration is and is not, we spoke with Dr. Kelly Greenhill, professor at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as author of the book "Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy", probing some interesting stories of people being used as political pawns to extract concessions from targeted governments.
Throughout this conversation we covered not only the how and why of weaponized migration, but also the ways in which targeted states and communities can respond (some more palatable than others). One of the most interesting things to note in this is that this coercive tactic only works when the targeted country's population is divided over immigration debates. This means that the United States, which has not been able to agree on immigration policy changes since 1994, is very vulnerable to this and needs to prepare for various countries to utilize this tactic both very publicly and in more clandestine ways. As the Presidential Election season is upon us and the Southern Border remains a hotly debated issue, it is interesting to wonder what the sudden appearance of migrant caravans might be in service of. Are countries trying to impact our elections by creating these caravans and encouraging them to move north? What can malign regimes extract from the Biden Administration simply by threatening to release waves of people upon the US' southern border?
Join us for this engaging conversation and dive into the realities of this all too common exploitation of people looking for a better, safer, and brighter future.