Crime and Immigration: Evidence from Large Immigrant Waves

Brian Bell; Francesco Fasani; Stephen Machin

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00337

Crime and Immigration: Evidence from Large Immigrant Waves

Brian Bell¹; Francesco Fasani²; Stephen Machin³

¹ University of Oxford and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics · ² Institute for Economic Analysis, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and INSIDE-MOVE · ³ University College London, and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2013 open access

Abstract This paper focuses on empirical connections between crime and immigration, studying two large waves of recent U.K. immigration (the late 1990s/early 2000s asylum seekers and the post-2004 inflow from EU accession countries). The first wave led to a modest but significant rise in property crime, while the second wave had a small negative impact. There was no effect on violent crime; arrest rates were not different, and changes in crime cannot be ascribed to crimes against immigrants. The findings are consistent with the notion that differences in labor market opportunities of different migrant groups shape their potential impact on crime.

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00337
Volume: 95 (4)
Pages: 1278-1290
Language: en
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