Global Forced Displacement Data: the Politics of Counting People on the Move

Quantitative analysis of the causes and consequences of forced displacement has increased in political science in recent years. At the core of these analyses is time-series-cross-sectional data on global forced displacement produced by international and national policy actors. This research note discusses the inaccuracy and political bias in data on forcibly displaced populations by focusing on challenges for political scientists. With a replication of Blair, Grossman and Weinstein (2022), I demonstrate that the inferences we draw from comparative analyses of forced displacement data are sensitive to both the data generation process and the political nature of the data. The note concludes that more awareness for the politics behind counting people on the move is crucial.