State pressures and the forced migrant: Evaluating global state failure in an effort to ameliorate the consequences of forced migration in the developing world

Given that the largest forced migrant populations can be found primarily in the developing world and considering the tremendous destabilizing effect such large population movements have on the political and economic systems in these regions, this situation is of great political, policy and humanitarian importance to the international community. This dissertation attempts to address those political and policy issues that arise when studying forced migration by developing a statistical model that evaluates and establishes a relationship between state failure and the factors that trigger the occurrence of forced migration. Although this relationship has yet to be established using research methods and analysis, there is discussion in the conflict literature to suggest that this relationship provides a more practical framework for understanding state failure and the causes of forced migration than previous statistical analyses of these factors alone. A greater understanding of what causes state failure and the relationship between the nature of the state and forced migration will allow policy makers to better predict, anticipate and prevent failure and subsequent forced migration.