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I May Be an Immigrant, but I Am Not a Criminal: Examining the Association Between the Presence of Immigrants and Crime Rates in Europe

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Abstract

Immigration is a contentious topic that continues to elicit debates among scholars, practitioners, and the general public. Research on the relationship between immigration and crime has been at the center stage of social science inquiry for many years; however, the evidence is mixed. The aim of the present study is to supplement prior efforts to better understand the immigration–crime nexus. By analyzing aggregate-level data obtained from 21 European countries, we assessed the effects of three types of variables—percent of immigrants, immigrants with no citizenship, and refugees—on three different types of violent crimes. Overall, the results indicated a null relationship between immigration and crime, suggesting that immigration is unrelated to all the three types of crimes assessed. Based on these results, it is recommended that immigration-related policies will be based on fact and evidence, and not on sentiments and perceptions.

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Notes

  1. We employ the Eurostat definition of the following terms: (a) an immigrant is a person who has established “his or her usual residence in the territory of a Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country.”

    (b) A noncitizen immigrant “is a person who is not a citizen of the reporting country nor of any other country, but who has established links to that country which include some but not all rights and obligations of full citizenship. Recognized noncitizens are not included in the number of European Union (EU) citizens.

    (c) A refugee is a “third-country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it and to whom Article 12 of Directive 2011/95/EU does not apply.”

  2. The study design was driven by a descriptive design/methodology.

  3. These countries include Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and Slovenia.

  4. A country’s GDP is determined in US dollars, and the Economic Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) maintains and annually updates the National Accounts Main Aggregates database.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, Fellow at Sara Isom Center for Women & Gender Studies, The University of Mississippi, University, MS, 38677, USA

    Francis D. Boateng

  2. Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Daniel K. Pryce

  3. School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA

    Joselyne L. Chenane

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  1. Francis D. Boateng
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  2. Daniel K. Pryce
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  3. Joselyne L. Chenane
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Correspondence to Francis D. Boateng.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 3 Collinearity statistics
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Appendix 2

Fig. 1
figure 1

Mean scores

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Appendix 3

Fig. 2
figure 2

Visual representation of crime by percent immigrants

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Boateng, F.D., Pryce, D.K. & Chenane, J.L. I May Be an Immigrant, but I Am Not a Criminal: Examining the Association Between the Presence of Immigrants and Crime Rates in Europe. Int. Migration & Integration 22, 1105–1124 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00790-1

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