Immigration and crime explained

Immigration and crime explores whether there is a relationship between criminal activity and the phenomenon of immigration.

Most studies show that immigration has either no or minimal impact on crime in most countries.[1] [2] There is little evidence that migration 'unconditionally' leads to more terrorist activity, especially in western countries, and the effectiveness of stopping migration on preventing terrorism is rather limited.[3] Research on the relationship between refugee migration and crime is ambiguous, and does not increase crime in resettlement programs like that of the U.S. which screen-out high-risk individuals.[4] Some scholars argue that when data of crime rates among immigrants are often inflated because of including imprisonment for migration offenses or due to racial and ethnic discrimination by police and the judicial system can result in higher conviction rates for immigrants relative to the actual number of crimes committed.[5] [6]

Research suggests that people overestimate the impact of immigration on crime, due in part to sensational media coverage or narratives pushed by politicians. This fear of crime can lead to increases in hate crimes against immigrants as well as harsher immigration policies like family separation.

International

Most studies fail to show any causal effect of immigration on overall crime rates.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

According to a 2024 article migrants in most countries (with the notable exception of the United States and a few other Anglo-Saxon countries) have higher rates of criminal activity compared to native-born populations. Among immigrants, younger and less-educated men, as well as those with undocumented or irregular legal status, have a higher propensity to commit crimes compared to others. For example, migrants that are younger, less-educated men, and without legal status have a higher propensity to commit crimes compared to others.

Some factors may affect the reliability of data on suspect rates, crime rates, conviction rates and prison populations for drawing conclusions about immigrants' overall involvement in criminal activity:

Terrorism

As of 2020, the relationship between immigration and terrorism was inconclusive.

A 2016 study finds that migrants from terror-prone states increase the risk of terrorism in the host country, but when immigration is not necessarily linked to terrorism in the migrants' countries of origin, immigration is associated with a lower level of terrorism in the host country.[43] The authors note that "only a minority of migrants from high-terrorism states can be associated with increases in terrorism, and not necessarily in a direct way." In 2018, Washington and Lee University law professor Nora V. Demleitner wrote that there is "mixed evidence" as to a relationship between immigration and terrorism.[44] A paper by a group of German political scientists and economists, covering 1980–2010, found that on average, the foreigners were not more likely to become terrorists than the natives.[45] [46] The study also found little evidence that terrorism is systematically imported from predominantly Muslim countries, the exceptions being Algeria and Iran.[47] High-skilled migrants are associated with a significantly lower risk of terror compared to low-skilled ones, while there is no significant difference between male and female migrants. The study found that diminished acceptance by the host country of the migrants increased the terror risk. Research focusing on the security impact of the European migrant crisis found little to no relationship between increasing migration flows and acts of terrorism.[48] [49]

According to Olivier Roy in 2017 analyzing the previous two decades of terrorism in France, the typical jihadist is a second-generation immigrant or convert who after a period of petty crime was radicalized in prison.[50] Georgetown University terrorism expert Daniel Byman agree with Olivier Roy that repression of minority groups, such as Muslims, makes it easier for terrorist organizations to recruit from those minority groups.[51] Roy has argued that the burkini bans and secularist policies of France provoked religious violence in France, which French scholar Gilles Kepel disputed saying that Britain did not have those policies and still suffered several jihadist attacks in 2017.[52] [53]

Asia

Japan

A survey of existing research on immigration and crime in Japan found that "prosecution and sentencing in Japan do seem to result in some disparities by nationality, but the available data are too limited to arrive at confident conclusions about their nature or magnitude".[54]

According to a 1997 news report, a large portion of crimes by immigrants are by Chinese in Japan, and some highly publicized crimes by organized groups of Chinese (often with help of Japanese organized crime) have led to a negative public perception of immigrants.[55] According to the National Police Agency in 2015, Vietnamese nationals overtook Chinese as having the highest number of criminal offenses for foreigners.[56] The number of offenses has reportedly been on the rise as of 2021,[57] and has been linked to the lower economic status of Vietnamese in Japan.[58]

Malaysia

A 2017 study found that immigration to Malaysia decreases property crime rates and violent crime rates.[59] In the case of property crime rates, this is in part because immigrants improve economic conditions for natives.

Europe

A 2015 study found that the increase in immigration flows into western European countries that took place in the 2000s did "not affect crime victimization, but it is associated with an increase in the fear of crime, the latter being consistently and positively correlated with the natives' unfavourable attitude toward immigrants."[10] In a survey of the existing economic literature on immigration and crime, one economist describes the existing literature in 2014 as showing that "the results for Europe are mixed for property crime but no association is found for violent crime". According to statistics from some countries, asylum seekers are overrepresented in crime figures.[60] [61] [62]

Denmark

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ajzenman . Nicolas . 2023-01-29 . Migrants don't cause crime rates to increase — but false perceptions endure anyway . 2024-08-05 . The Conversation . en-US . Although most research shows immigration has either no impact or a minimal impact on crime, many people seem to believe the connection exists. It seems hostility against immigrants isn’t crime itself but false perceptions about crime..
  2. News: Cullen . Catherine . 2017 . Does immigration increase crime? . . Frank Cormier argues that in just about every country immigrants are less likely to commit crimes..
  3. Helbling . Marc . Meierrieks . Daniel . 2020 . Terrorism and Migration: An Overview . . en . 52 . 2 . 977–996 . 10.1017/S0007123420000587 . 0007-1234 . 1) there is little evidence that more migration unconditionally leads to more terrorist activity, especially in Western countries... (3) the effectiveness of stricter migration policies in deterring terrorism is rather limited . free.
  4. Masterson . Daniel . Yasenov . Vasil . 2021 . Does Halting Refugee Resettlement Reduce Crime? Evidence from the US Refugee Ban . American Political Science Review . en . 115 . 3 . 1066–1073 . 10.1017/S0003055421000150 . 0003-0554 . free.
  5. Book: Crocitti, Stefania . Immigration, Crime, and Criminalization in Italy – Oxford Handbooks . 2014 . 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199859016.013.029.
  6. West . Jeremy . February 2018 . Racial Bias in Police Investigations . live . Working Paper . https://web.archive.org/web/20190323090110/https://people.ucsc.edu/~jwest1/articles/West_RacialBiasPolice.pdf . 23 March 2019 . 16 March 2018.
  7. Marie . Olivier . Pinotti . Paolo . 2024 . Immigration and Crime: An International Perspective . . 38 . 1 . 195–196 . 10.1257/jep.38.1.181 .
  8. Tufail . Muhammad . Song . Lin . Ali . Sher . Wahab . Salman . Hassan . Taimoor . 2023-03-31 . Does more immigration lead to more violent and property crimes? A case study of 30 selected OECD countries . . en . 36 . 1 . 1867–1885 . 10.1080/1331677X.2022.2094437 . 1331-677X.
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