GERMANY - Immigration Does Not Raise Crime Rate
Immigrants or refugees do not have a higher tendency to commit crime and there is no correlation between the proportion of immigrants in a given district and the local crime rate, according to a new analysis of the latest German crime statistics carried out by the renowned ifo institute.
Migrants tend to settle in urban areas, where there is more population density, more nightlife, and more people in public spaces at all hours of the day. That means the general crime rate is higher, and crime suspects are just as likely to be German as of foreign background. In other words, districts with higher levels of “immigrant” crime also have higher crime rates among Germans.
“These places increase the risk of becoming perpetrators for residents, regardless of nationality, due to the infrastructure, economic situation, police presence or population density,” the study said.
The supposed propensity of immigrants to commit crimes has become the dominant narrative in the current German election campaign. In a recent Bundestag debate on restricting immigration, Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), spoke of “daily occurring gang rapes in the asylum seeker milieu.”
“We have skyrocketing crime statistics. We have skyrocketing crime among foreigners, youth crime, migrant violence,” AfD co-leader and chancellor candidate Alice Weidel said in 2024. “Rapes are high, knife crimes are high, 15,000 in the last year.”
The numbers were found to be false by media outlets’ fact-checking teams.
Much-reported attacks by people of immigrant background in Munich, Aschaffenburg, and Magdeburg have fueled this popular narrative, but statistical studies draw a very different picture.
“Even for violent crimes such as homicide or sexual assault, the study shows no statistical correlation with an increasing share of foreigners or refugees,” the ifo researchers said.
-www.dw.com, 20 February 2025
Arno's Commentary
The general tendency of populations is summarized by their oft-repeated statement, “It’s the foreigners; they’re not like us, so they must be at fault.” Yet, government fact-checking reveals, not so.
Here is an excerpt of an article about undocumented immigrants that we published in this column in October 2024: “Regarding crime, the respectable Cato Institute (libertarian think tank) confirms: ‘The results are similar to our other work on illegal immigration and crime in Texas. In 2018, the illegal immigrant criminal conviction rate was 782 per 100,000 illegal immigrants, 535 per 100,000 legal immigrants, and 1,422 per 100,000 native-born Americans. The illegal immigrant criminal conviction rate was 45 percent below that of native-born Americans in Texas.’”
It was November 9-10 in 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jews and their property in the infamous “Kristallnacht.” What was the reason? The propaganda machine proclaimed, “It’s the Jews’ fault” and, “The Jews are our misfortune.” In general, that was a reference to Germany’s loss in the First World War against Russia and its allies.
Today, we see a parallel developing, not only in Europe but also throughout the world. “The others” are blamed and looked down upon, and in several countries the mantra, “It’s a foreigner problem” has elected governments as this belief spreads among the people.
In the New Testament, we read: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). True peace never was and never will be on planet earth. There is a clear distinction between the peace of your heart and the peace in this world.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
