Recent from talks
Immigration and crime in Germany
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Immigration and crime in Germany
Crimes may be committed both against and by immigrants in Germany. Crimes involving foreigners (German: Ausländerkriminalität) have been a longstanding theme in public debates in Germany. In November 2015, a report that was released by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stated that "While the number of refugees is rising very dynamically, the development of crime does not increase to the same extent." Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) noted that "refugees are on average delinquent as little or as often as comparison groups of the local population." A 2018 statistical study by researchers at the University of Magdeburg using 2009-2015 data argued that, where analysis is restricted to crimes involving at least one German victim and one refugee suspect and crimes by immigrants against other immigrants are excluded, there is no relationship between the scale of refugee inflow and the crime rate. In 2018 the interior ministry under Horst Seehofer (CSU) published, for the first time, an analysis of the Federal Police Statistic (German: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik (PKS)), which includes all those who came via the asylum system to Germany. The report found that the immigrant group, which makes up about 2% of the overall population, contains 8.5% of all suspects, after violations against Germany's alien law are excluded.
Several studies carried out since the 1990s have suggested that the collection of accurate and meaningful statistics makes it difficult to obtain an overall picture of the effect of immigration on crime in Germany. For example, second or third generation immigrants may be classified as "foreigners" whilst recent immigrants may be classified as German. Research also suggests that crimes are more likely to be reported, if the suspect is or appears to be a foreigner or immigrant. Because each of Germany's 16 states has its own police force, federal authorities do not routinely publish national statistics. These are compiled state by state and are sometimes released only after a parliamentary request.
The Ausländergesetz (Deutschland) (Foreigners Act) of 1965 attempted to control immigration to West Germany.
During the 1950s and 1960s, a group known as Gastarbeiter participated in an organised immigration programme to the former West Germany because of labour shortages in the country. The former East Germany also had labour shortages but their "guest worker" programme tended to encourage immigration from other socialist and communist countries. Although the German government did not plan the program as a permanent method of keeping the "guest workers", after unification and the reform of German Naturalization Laws of the 1990s, former "guest workers" increasingly became German citizens. The first generation of "guest workers" did not have an elevated crime rate, but studies carried out in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that second- and third-generation immigrants had higher crime rates than their German contemporaries who were not from an immigrant background.
A 1991 Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich study covering the preceding two decades found that crime rates were higher among immigrants with a strongly different cultural background from Germans. Under the guest worker programme, Turks and Yugoslavs had far higher crime rates than Spaniards and Portuguese, while the highest crime rates were recorded among individuals from third world countries. For third world countries, the immigrants were first generation.
Studies in the early 2000s tended to show little correlation between migrants and crime in Germany.
From the start of 2015 to the end of 2017, 1,356,600 asylum seekers were registered in total. According to a 2018 study by German criminologists, the crime rate of non-Germans between the ages of 16 and 30 is within the same range as that of Germans. In May 2016, U.S. fact-checker Politifact suggested that, as crimes by immigrants rose 79 percent in 2015 and the number of refugees in the country rose by 440 percent, the crime rate among refugees was lower than that among German natives.
In November 2015, a report by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stated that "While the number of refugees is rising very dynamically, the development of crime does not increase to the same extent." The report noted that refugees from Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia were overrepresented and Iraqis were underrepresented. It did not contain representation for refugees from North Africa.
Hub AI
Immigration and crime in Germany AI simulator
(@Immigration and crime in Germany_simulator)
Immigration and crime in Germany
Crimes may be committed both against and by immigrants in Germany. Crimes involving foreigners (German: Ausländerkriminalität) have been a longstanding theme in public debates in Germany. In November 2015, a report that was released by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stated that "While the number of refugees is rising very dynamically, the development of crime does not increase to the same extent." Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) noted that "refugees are on average delinquent as little or as often as comparison groups of the local population." A 2018 statistical study by researchers at the University of Magdeburg using 2009-2015 data argued that, where analysis is restricted to crimes involving at least one German victim and one refugee suspect and crimes by immigrants against other immigrants are excluded, there is no relationship between the scale of refugee inflow and the crime rate. In 2018 the interior ministry under Horst Seehofer (CSU) published, for the first time, an analysis of the Federal Police Statistic (German: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik (PKS)), which includes all those who came via the asylum system to Germany. The report found that the immigrant group, which makes up about 2% of the overall population, contains 8.5% of all suspects, after violations against Germany's alien law are excluded.
Several studies carried out since the 1990s have suggested that the collection of accurate and meaningful statistics makes it difficult to obtain an overall picture of the effect of immigration on crime in Germany. For example, second or third generation immigrants may be classified as "foreigners" whilst recent immigrants may be classified as German. Research also suggests that crimes are more likely to be reported, if the suspect is or appears to be a foreigner or immigrant. Because each of Germany's 16 states has its own police force, federal authorities do not routinely publish national statistics. These are compiled state by state and are sometimes released only after a parliamentary request.
The Ausländergesetz (Deutschland) (Foreigners Act) of 1965 attempted to control immigration to West Germany.
During the 1950s and 1960s, a group known as Gastarbeiter participated in an organised immigration programme to the former West Germany because of labour shortages in the country. The former East Germany also had labour shortages but their "guest worker" programme tended to encourage immigration from other socialist and communist countries. Although the German government did not plan the program as a permanent method of keeping the "guest workers", after unification and the reform of German Naturalization Laws of the 1990s, former "guest workers" increasingly became German citizens. The first generation of "guest workers" did not have an elevated crime rate, but studies carried out in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that second- and third-generation immigrants had higher crime rates than their German contemporaries who were not from an immigrant background.
A 1991 Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich study covering the preceding two decades found that crime rates were higher among immigrants with a strongly different cultural background from Germans. Under the guest worker programme, Turks and Yugoslavs had far higher crime rates than Spaniards and Portuguese, while the highest crime rates were recorded among individuals from third world countries. For third world countries, the immigrants were first generation.
Studies in the early 2000s tended to show little correlation between migrants and crime in Germany.
From the start of 2015 to the end of 2017, 1,356,600 asylum seekers were registered in total. According to a 2018 study by German criminologists, the crime rate of non-Germans between the ages of 16 and 30 is within the same range as that of Germans. In May 2016, U.S. fact-checker Politifact suggested that, as crimes by immigrants rose 79 percent in 2015 and the number of refugees in the country rose by 440 percent, the crime rate among refugees was lower than that among German natives.
In November 2015, a report by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stated that "While the number of refugees is rising very dynamically, the development of crime does not increase to the same extent." The report noted that refugees from Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia were overrepresented and Iraqis were underrepresented. It did not contain representation for refugees from North Africa.