When the government says "populate or suffer" and attract immigration, it is trying to maintain the territorial integrity of the country through hierarchical diffusion. This strategy worked once that country was able to maintain territorial integrity.
A hierarchical diffusion is a term used to explain a situation where an idea is disseminated through an authority to several regions or several different people from one region. According to this concept, we can say that "people or suffer" is an example of hierarchical diffusion, since it was an idea created by the authorities and was spread to the whole population.
