Higher proportion of migrants does not mean more crime, report

An higher proportion of foreigners in Germany does not lead to a higher crime rate, a research institute said on Tuesday.

In an analysis of police statistics from 2018 to 2023, the Ifo institute found "no correlation between an increasing proportion of foreigners in a district and the local crime rate", researcher Jean-Victor Alipour said, adding that this also applied to refugees.

Last week, an Afghan immigrant ploughed his car into a crowd in Munich, injuring over 30 people, two of whom later died. Prosecutors suspect he was motivated by extremist ideology.

In their analysis, Ifo took into account that foreigners appear in crime statistics more frequently than would correspond to their share of the population.

The reason for this is that migrants are more likely to move to urban centres with a structurally higher crime rate, even among Germans, the institute said.