Kyilah Terry: Coercion Capital - Migrant Recruitment for Strategic Ends [EN]

Research Factory B/ORDERS IN MOTION

Wed., 18. June 2025, 16:15-17:45 Uhr
On-site, room: HG 109 (Senate Hall)

Coercion Capital - Migrant Recruitment for Strategic Ends

Kyilah Terry, M.A.
(Political Science – International Relations, University of Pennsylvania)

The rise of hybrid warfare reflects a world in transition, with migration as a critical yet overlooked tool of geopolitical coercion. While migration discourse often focuses on restrictions, this paper argues that Belarus’s facilitation of migration represents a new coercive mechanism that non-transit states may replicate. Building on previous theories of migrant instrumentalization, I introduce the concept of "migrant recruitment", — a state’s proactive facilitation of migration for strategic ends. By lowering travel costs, easing visa processes, and promoting accessible routes, Belarus exploits EU vulnerabilities, undermining its internal cohesion and destabilizing its neighborhood policies. Situating Belarus’s actions within Russia’s geopolitical strategy, this case study identifies the conditions under which states engage in recruitment for instrumentalized migration and examines the broader risks these tactics pose to both sending states and international stability.

Kyilah Terry is a 3rd year doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research broadly centers on migrant externalization, strategically engineered migration, and climate mobility. Currently, she is researching how authoritarian governments leverage migrants to achieve their foreign policy objectives.

Previously, Kyilah was a Princeton in Africa fellow working in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and a Policy Fellow in the White House, working under Vice President Kamala Harris. She received a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in European Studies.

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