The Relationship between Migration and Homicides at the Cross-National Level: A Longitudinal Analysis

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on High-Profile Issues: Homicide, Terrorism, and Trafficking

Abstract

Objective: What is the relationship between migration and homicides at the country level? Common belief often assumes that a higher concentration of migrants will correspond to higher levels of homicide. Individual level research has often found evidence of the opposite. However, at the country level, this relationship remains untested.
Methods: I analyze national level homicide and migrant stock data from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank, and included control variables from various internationally recognized sources. The final sample consists of data from 64 countries at three periods between 1998 and 2012. We compare the results from OLS and fixed effects models, taking advantage of the longitudinal structure of the data.
Results: Countries with a higher percentage of migrants also have a lower number of homicides. However, this association is mitigated to almost zero and non-significance with the control of traditional economic indicators for absolute and relative deprivation. The fixed effect analysis shows that migrant stock is unable to explain variations in homicide. In contrast, absolute deprivation retains a strong, negative association with changes in homicides.
Conclusions: Migration is a social consequence of a broader process of country development that also corresponds to lower levels of violence.

Author

• Mateus Renno Santos, University of Maryland