Immigrants: Lower crime rates than native borns

Of course, this goes for native borns of all types: Native born non-Hispanic whites, native blacks, and native born (ie 2nd and 3rd generation folks like myself) Latinos.

Immigrants - as opposed to the paranoia being spewed from nativist Republicans - have drastically lower crime rates than any native born populations.

Via Duke 1676 (author of Migra Matters blog btw)

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee went to Houston to investigate "The criminal consequences of illegal immigration along the Southern Border." During the five hour hearing, they took testimony from the Texas Homeland Security Director, and officials from The Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Webb County Sheriff, Rick Flores narrated a video of a gunfight between members of drug cartels in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, and they heard from the mother of a 17 year old girl murdered by and undocumented immigrant who escaped prosecution by returning to his home country. Texas prison officials testified along with Houston police and Harris County Sheriffs. The hearings made for good political theater, but the real answers to the Representatives questions could be found by Congressional interns with a few hours of research time.

In June, one of the most comprehensive studies of immigration and its effect on crime was published by The Migration Policy Institute. It's finding - immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native born Americans.


Debunking the Myth of Immigrant Criminality: Imprisonment Among First- and
Second-Generation Young Men by By Rubén G. Rumbaut, of the University of
California - Irvine, looked at the rates of incarceration of newly arrived immigrants and their US born children and compared that to the rates of the US non-immigrant population.

Published in the MPI journal "Migration Information' the study, went back over three decades, and looked at various factors such as educational levels, country of origin and ethnic background, to examined the confluences of two major trends in the US society; the staggering increase in imprisonment of large segments of the population during the period, and a tremendous growth in immigration. In a classic case of correlation not equaling causation the study found no clear relationship between the two.


The study notes that the last three decades have marked a period of vastly increased immigration. According to the latest census 23% of the population (70 million people), are either foreign born or of foreign parentage, including 76 percent of all "Hispanics" and 90 percent of all "Asians"

The era of mass immigration has also coincided with an era of mass imprisonment in the United States ... the US incarceration rate has become the highest of any country in the world. In California alone, there are more people imprisoned than in any other country in the world except China.

The number of adults incarcerated in federal or state prisons or local jails in the United States skyrocketed during this period, quadrupling from just over 500,000 in 1980 to 2.2 million in 2005, according to the Department of Justice...the vast majority are young men between 18 and 39.

Common knowledge would have it that these two trends would be related. Daily we here stories of increased gang violence, of drugs being smuggled in over the border, and crimes committed by "illegal aliens." This in spite of the fact of a falling US crime rate. For many, this perception has become their "reality". From the pundits to politicians, all echo the same refrain; immigrants bring crime.

But that quite simply is not the case:

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This is only a piece of the post, if you want to see the facts and numbers, please read the rest of his post at Daily Kos.

It seems violence is not so much an immigrant thing, but an American thing. American's who live in poverty that is. The poverty and lack of opportunity that often exemplifies the neighborhood that native born minorities live in, and that is where alot of the increases in crime rates among minorities and second generation people come from.

It seems that immigrants are immune to that though. They come from a different land with a different culture and usually it is to find a better life and work hard...perhaps it is this important difference in immigrants and native-born americans that can explain why they are the least likely to commit crimes.

What does it say about American culture though?

Immigrant + poverty = less crime

American = more crime

American + poverty = even more crime

We as a nation should not be worried about the crime immigration brings, we should be seeking ways to address the blinding poverty, violence and lack of opportunity found in poor areas in our nation (often minority areas). The problem among Americans has its roots there.