Seminar

Protect and Repress:
Government Responses to Internally Displaced People

Abbey Steele
University of Amsterdam

Chairs
Juan Masullo & Andrea Ruggeri
University of Milan 

24 February 2026, h. 11:00
Seminar Room (Passione)
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Via Passione, 15 - Milan

Abstract
Displacement within and across borders is a growing global challenge and the most prevalent form of violence during armed conflict. State responses to internally displaced people (IDPs) vary widely, from offering humanitarian assistance to perpetrating the displacement itself. These responses are often implicated in broader political processes of war, electoral mobilization, discrimination, or even indifference to citizens. Scholarship has demonstrated gaps in the implementation of de jure policy, inconsistency across policies, and de facto responses that emerge from the ground up in the absence of de jure policies. We build on these findings by proposing a logic that subsumes the means of government responses to the political ends they seek to achieve. We categorize government responses as protection or repression of the internally displaced, encompassing both de jure politics and de facto practices. Protective responses provide humanitarian resources and public services to IDPs, and guarantee property, political, and other rights. Repressive responses involve the military or police forces and cause new displacement or restrict IDPs' mobility by forcing them into camps. We illustrate how governments that have adopted de jure protective policies may engage in de facto repressive practices, what we call a protective inconsistent response; and conversely, de jure repressive policies may exist in conjunction with de facto protective practices, what we call repressive 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. 

This presentation is based on a paper co-authored by Adam Lichtenheld, Stephanie Schwartz, and Abbey Steele.

Bio

Abbey Steele is an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Amsterdam and founder of the Amsterdam Conflict Research Network (ACoRN), a monthly seminar with scholars from across the Netherlands and Europe. With Alessandro Nai, she is co-PI of the research priority area Conflict & Society at the UvA, and she is on the board of the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies, which she previously directed.