New Destinations, Immigration, and Crime: A Test of Competing Measures

• In Event: Emerging Issues on Immigration, Crime and Justice

Abstract

The designation of “new destination” has received growing attention in the immigration-crime literature. Singer and colleagues first offered the concept of “new gateways” to describe metropolitan areas that experienced major growth in immigration either from 1980-200 (emerging gateways) or from 1990-2000 (pre-emerging gateways). The importance of the concept is its recognition that the process of immigration may be mediated by the structures in place to facilitate incorporation, structures which are expected to be more established in traditional destinations and less so in new immigrant locales. However, while recent research has incorporated a focus on new immigrant destinations, there has been limited discussion of how best to operationalize the concept. This paper presents an analysis of the effects of competing definitions of “new destinations” on rates of crime. Results offer directions for future analyses on this important aspect of immigration research.

Author

• Vincent Ferraro, Framingham State University