Dynamics of Migration and Crime in Europe: New Patterns of an Old Nexus

• NCJ Number: 193990
• Author(s): Ernesto U. Savona; Andrea Di Nicola; Giovanni Da Col
• Date Published: October 1996
• Length: 34 pages
• Corporate Author: Transcrime Research Centre on Transnational Crime
• Sale Source: Transcrime Research Centre on Transnational Crime
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Italy
• Note: Downloaded on 03/28/2002

Annotation

This report examined the relationship between migration and crime in Europe, including understanding the development of the problem and discussing interventions for policies aimed at reducing the social cost.

Abstract

This research report attempted to explain some of the problems inherent to the relationship between migration and crime in Europe. With new problems emerging and harmonized policies between the 15 European Union countries, Western Europe was determined the best laboratory for the analysis of migration and crime. The report examined the quantitative dimension of the link between migration and crime in Europe, the migratory flows in Europe, the quantity of crime caused by foreigners, and the relationship between the demand for illegal immigration and the supply of criminal organizations operating in the region. Five questions were addressed in this research: (1) where did the demand for immigration come from and what were the factors that determined it; (2) how did the demand for illegal immigration meet the supply of organized crime; (3) what were the criminal problems caused by immigrants in the host countries; (4) what were the European and national policies for facing the problem and how could they be modified; and (5) what was the Italian situation regarding the examined phenomena and what lines of action were desirable? The data analysis made it clear that migration and crime were connected when criminal organization made profits from alien smuggling and when these foreigners or migrants filled the local markets of drug peddling and prostitution in the host country. With high unemployment in many European countries and the chances for legal employment minimal, the trafficking of illegal migrants was increasing. The mixture of bad social conditions caused crime on all levels. Policies under discussion by the European Union to reduce crime include redirecting economic development, regulating immigration entry permits, and instituting crime control policies, such as penal control directed at organized crime. Notes