Refugees and Host State Security: An Empirical Investigation of Rohingya Refuge in Bangladesh

TL;DR

This study empirically examines whether the large Rohingya refugee influx in Bangladesh from 2017 to 2020 posed significant security threats, finding only low-level issues and challenging common assumptions about refugee-related security risks.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence showing that the Rohingya influx did not cause serious security threats to Bangladesh, countering prevailing narratives.

Findings

No serious security threats experienced by Bangladesh.

Criminal activities were low-level and manageable.

Refutes common claims that refugees threaten host security.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that large-scale refugees pose security threats to the host community or state. With massive influx of Rohingyas in Bangladesh in 2017 resulting a staggering total of 1.6 million Rohingyas, a popular discourse emerged that Bangladesh would face severe security threats. This article investigates the security experience of Bangladesh in case of Rohingya influx over a three-year period, August 2017 to August 2020. The research question I intend to address is, 'has Bangladesh experienced security threat due to massive Rohingya influx?' If so in what ways? I test four security threat areas: societal security, economic security, internal security, and public security. I have used newspaper content analysis over past three years along with interview data collected from interviewing local people in coxs bazar area where the Rohingya camps are located. To assess if the threats are low level, medium level, or high level, I investigated both the frequency of reports and the way they are interpreted. I find that Bangladesh did not experience any serious security threats over the last three years. There are some criminal activities and offenses, but these are only low-level security threat at best. My research presents empirical evidence that challenges conventional assertions that refugees are security threats or challenges to the host states.