Should "cleansing" new colonies be considered purging?

[pgt1027]

One thing I find annoying is the fact that my empire is viewed as abhorrent if we go to war to demand that somebody remove a colony they established near our space that is frustratingly close to my borders. You're the one who set up that colony, tentacles for eyes, on the 9 tile arid world in orbit around the 25 tile alpine world that I needed! Is it so wrong that I force you to evacuate your colonists before you're properly established?

Why does cleansing work in the perspective of murdering colonists, anyhow? I guess it makes sense for a fully populated planet but if it's just a starting colony without a planetary administration? I think there should be a consequence-free war goal to force an opponent to abandon said colony without it being considered purging. It should be viewed more as an evacuation, honestly.

I would support a sort of method that sits in somewhere in the middle.

A wargoal that allows you to evacuate the pops at some cost (it shouldn't be free, you can't relocate your own pops for free), but it only works while they have somewhere to evacuate to, either their old empire, if that empire accepts them, or empires that have a policy of accepting refugees. If there's nowhere for them to escape to, you're given the option to either purge them or keep them, and you eat the penalty if you decide to purge them.

And it's still regarded as a minor atrocity. Forcibly relocating people is still a pretty major crime, just not as bad as an outright genocide. Like how the Trail of Tears is seen as a horrible crime the American government committed against the indigenous tribes, but nothing nearly as bad as, say, the Holocaust.

 

[The Founder]

The problem with having an 'evacuate planet' war goal would be if that empire owning the planet had nowhere for those pops to go. You could then suggest they simply be evacuated to any empire with open door policy on refugees, but such empires aren't guaranteed to exist. As has been suggested so far the best workaround for this issue is to use the cede planet wargoal, then deal with the pops left on the planet however best fits your empire.

That is a general Problem with Displacement. It has to be solved in displacement itself.
Afaik Displaced pops can settle uninhabitated planets in neutral or "Open door" empires. Naturally the "Evacuate Planet" guys would have the same options.
By the time there really is not a single planet left, you are pretty deep into the late game.

 

[WhiteWeasel]

Brainstorming here, but it would be neat if displacing pops that don't have anywhere to go would cause some space pirates to turn up later. Space pirates/ space born nomads/factions are such a under utilized mechanic.

 

[lief1]

We could be given the option to tell the AI we don't want them colonizing there similar to how they tell us the same.