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The association that some sectors have tried to install between migration and crime is erased at a stroke by a study by the Center for Public Studies (CEP) that reaches the following conclusion: “The great flow of immigrants to the country in recent years has not come accompanied by an increase in their participation in crimes, if not the opposite ”.
The analysis corresponds to the chapter “Immigration and crime: A bounded problem”, by researchers Nicolás Blanco, Loreto Cox and Valeria Vega, which is part of the second edition of the book “Immigration in Chile: A multidimensional look”, which this Saturday advances Third.
Based on data provided by the Public Criminal Defense Office (DPP) for cases closed between 2006 and 2018, the researchers conclude that “the data for Chile is contrary to the widely shared belief that immigrants would raise crime rates: foreigners participate little in crime and, even more, their relative participation has been falling in recent years ”.
According to Loreto Cox, co-author of the CEP study, “the association between crime and migration is purely a myth” and “it was good news to verify that indeed the belief that they come to commit crimes is a myth.”
What’s more, he maintains that the trend “is totally down. This could be a mix of two factors. One is that the foreigners who have entered Chile in the most recent periods are people who have less tendency to commit crimes and it could also be that the people who are already in Chile for longer periods, that is, foreigners who arrived longer. , have reduced their tendency to commit crimes, “says the current professor at the School of Government of the Catholic University.
However, one of the conclusions of the CEP study is that the exception is crimes related to the Drug Law. Although, the report states, they maintain that this is a “limited problem” and that it is strongly concentrated in the northern regions of the country.
“Foreigners are overrepresented in drug offenses, almost three times between indictments and more than four times in the case of convictions,” the study notes.
Although, as Loreto Cox points out, it could be an issue not necessarily associated with migration. “They could perfectly be foreigners who are passing through and who are not really immigrants and that, the truth is that we do not have how to identify it in the database and the DPP could not provide us with more information about it,” he says.
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