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Do Immigrants Make Us Safer? Crime, Immigration, and the Labor Market

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Bassetti

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova and CICSE)

  • Luca Corazzini

    (Department of Economic Sciences, University of Venice)

  • Darwin Cortes

    (Facultad de Economia, Universidad del Rosario)

  • Luca Nunziata

    (DSEA, University of Padova and IZA)

Abstract

We present a two-country labor matching model to account for the existing, inconclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between immigration and crime. According to our model, inflows of relatively un- skilled immigrants negatively affect the labor market equilibrium and, therefore, sharpen criminal activities. On the other hand, inflows of relatively skilled immigrants boost economic activity and reduce the crime rate. Given this preliminary result, we endogenize the migration decision, showing that the host country’ s labor-market characteristics are crucial in determining the impact of migrants on crime rate. Countries characterized by low unemployment rates attract both skilled and unskilled immigrants, making the direction of the relationship between immigration and crime unclear. Countries with high unemployment rates attract only unskilled workers, thus favoring the emergence of a positive relationship between immigration and crime. We test the theoretical predictions of our model on a panel of 97 regions located in 12 European host countries built by combining the European Social Survey and the Eurostat Labor Force Survey. We identify a threshold level of unemployment rate above which the crime rate positively responds to immigration.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Bassetti & Luca Corazzini & Darwin Cortes & Luca Nunziata, 2020. "Do Immigrants Make Us Safer? Crime, Immigration, and the Labor Market," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0248, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    • Handle: RePEc:pad:wpaper:0248
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; Crime; Labor Market; Frictional Unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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