Migrant crime? Another myth bites the dust

A wide-ranging police study has concluded that the surge in immigrants from eastern Europe to Britain has not fuelled a rise in crime. The report, revealed first in the Guardian, found that, contrary to the alarmist headlines, the offending rates among Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, Romanian and Bulgarian incomers are pretty much in line with the rest of the population.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) canvassed the views of detectives and community officers across the UK. It found no evidence that crime is more prevalent among East Europeans than other groups. It said the sheer number of migrants in some areas has caused tensions and policing pressures – but the problems are few and far between.

Brendan Barber, Gen Sec of the TUC commented that the findings that criminality was no higher amongst migrant workers than the British population was no surprise to trade union members, adding ‘but the rise in migrant workers has led to an increase in law breaking – not by migrants but by bad employers who exploit their insecurity and their lack of knowledge of UK employment rights to deny them the minimum wage, holiday rights and other legal entitlements.’

Some media reports…

The horror story that turned out to be a myth – The Independent

Migrant crime wave a myth, says police study followed by Police to get extra funding to help with immigration costs – The Guardian

In How our media defines the immigration issue, the Our Kingdom blog, part of Open Democracy web project, takes a wee look at selective media amnesia.

And, rather predictably illustrating the ability of the gutter press to turn a positive story into a xenophobic rant via screaming headlines with no basis in reality, the Express goes with: Immigration from Eastern Europe has led to a huge surge in crime

A more balanced viewpoint can be found in a recent CentreForum pamphlet, which holds that, yes, along with national and local benefits of immigration there do come local problems – but these problems are entirely down to the incredible inefficiency with which our over-centralised state allocates local budgets (relying, incredibly, on 2001 census figures). If local authorities had power to raise and spend budgets from local populations, then they might actually be able to benefit from a large influx of foreign workers – or at least break even.

This report echoes an article during the Labour Party conference in September 2007 – Rapid migration is not a cost-free option, but the public must accept that without it parts of our economy would collapse – where Madeleine Bunting urged Gordon Brown to get stuck into how you persuade the voters that: a) migrants bring economic benefits – indeed, parts of our economy would collapse without them; b) rapid migration is not a cost-free option; and c) it’s worth paying for.