Refugee Admissions and Public Safety: Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?

Arbeitspapier

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of refugees worldwide rose to 21.3 million in 2015. Yet, resistance to the welcoming of refugees appears to have grown. The possibility that refugees may commit acts of terrorism or engage in criminal behavior has served as fuel for the Trump Administration’s position in 2017. Is there any basis for these fears? We exploit the variation in the geographic and temporal distribution of refugees across U.S. counties to ascertain if there is a link between refugee settlements and local crime rates or terrorist events in the United States. We fail to find any statistically significant evidence of such a connection.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 11612

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; International Migration ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy
• Subject: refugees ; crime ; United States ; terrorism

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina ; Bansak, Cynthia ; Pozo, Susan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/185072
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET