Dear researchers, as part of my Matura project, I am looking into immigration. Are migrants actually more likely to commit crimes than Swiss people, and how much of a threat should they be considered to pose? How should we respond?
Good afternoon
Almost 40 per cent of all Swiss people now have a migrant background. Consequently, recent academic studies are questioning how relevant the category of “foreigners” still is in crime research (Baier 2020). So who exactly is meant by “migrant” or “foreigner”?
Who are we actually talking about?
When it comes to people residing in Switzerland but who do not hold Swiss citizenship, the crime rate is significantly higher than that of Swiss nationals. However, one cannot conclude from this that this group is more criminal. Why?
Firstly, one would need to compare this group with a similar demographic group of Swiss people. Young men are much more prevalent amongst migrants. Yet, amongst Swiss people too, young men have the highest crime rate. So, if you compare young Swiss people with young migrants, the difference is no longer so great.
If you then also consider the foreign resident population – that is, people who are not just there temporarily – the difference narrows even further.
Over-representation
Furthermore, a distinction must be made between the number of actual offences (unreported cases) and those recorded by the police. Here, too, it can be assumed that migrants are more likely to be recorded by the police than Swiss nationals and are therefore over-represented in the statistics on recorded offences. Taking all this into account, the difference between foreign nationals and Swiss nationals is now only small.
Nevertheless, there is still a difference. However, it is inadmissible to generalise in this context either. The group of “migrants” is very heterogeneous in many respects, including with regard to criminality. Two factors are relevant here.
- One factor is residence status. The crime rate is comparatively high, particularly amongst asylum seekers. Research suggests that this is also linked to the crime-inducing factors associated with their specific living situation: collective accommodation, poverty, stress, trauma, legal restrictions … If Swiss people were living in this situation, they would probably be more likely to commit crimes too.
- The second factor is cultural background. Put simply: the more strongly this is characterised by masculinity – that is, linked to images of male roles that include violence – the higher the crime rate. However, this also applies to cultural differences within the Swiss population. Here, social class plays an important role.
In short, these considerations raise the question of whether the categories ‘foreigner’ or ‘migrant’ are at all meaningful in crime research.
References:
Baier, Dirk. 2020. Migration and Crime in Switzerland: Findings from Reported and Unreported Cases. Zurich