Panic? Probing Angst over Immigration and Crime

Clotilde Mahé () and Sergio Parra-Cely ()
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Clotilde Mahé: Department of Economics and Management, Université du Luxembourg

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: We examine empirically whether immigration affects crime in an emerging country, Ecuador. We exploit the fact that immigration flows of Venezuelans suddenly evolved from voluntary to forced, and occurred disproportionately along land borders. We use nationally representative administrative and survey data to precisely estimate an economically null effect of Venezuelan immigration on property and violent crime. We also show that natives are more likely to believe that immigration worsens the economy, despite clear evidence of negative labour market impact due to recent Venezuelan inflows. Results confirm that fears over immigration and crime are not necessarily supported by facts.

Keywords: Immigration; Crime; Ecuador; Venezuela; Latin America. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:21-04

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