Types Of Illegal Immigrants: Effects Of Immigration On Crime Rate

Comparative Essay
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Illegal immigration is a common problem in the US. Organized groups take advantage of people’s desire to enter into the US in search of employment and better living conditions. Immigrants pay money for them to be smuggled through the borders. This business generates a lot of income for these organized groups. Tight measures by the US government even makes the business more lucrative. The organized groups pay a small fee to local authorities and they are able to run their activities without interference from the local authorities. According to the UNDOC 57% of migrants have entered the use by using traffickers to smuggle them into the country (Goi, 2017). This paper discusses the relationship between illegal immigrants and crime rate.
Types of Illegal Immigrants
There are three types of illegal immigration. One is overstaying one’s visa. This happens when an individual goes to study in the US and once they have finished studying decide to work and stay in the US illegally. The second type is immigration through human trafficking, immigrants are smuggled into the country either willingly or through human trafficking without proper documentation. The third type is extending Border Crossing Card which only allows a person to cross into the US for a limited period of time but some decide to stay longer. The US has been working towards policies that are strict towards illegal immigration and anyone caught as an illegal immigrant is deported back to their country of origin.
Effects of Immigration on Crime Rate
Opinion surveys conducted show that most American feel that crime rate is higher because of illegal immigrants. However according to the research carried out by Jorg Spenkuch, an assistant professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at Northwestern University, finds out that there is no correlation between an increase in immigrants and increase in crime rate. Spenkuch came to this conclusion after comparing FBI data records and looking at who were the highest number of people involved in crime. Spenkuch (Kellogg Insight, 2014). Scholars who have also participated in different research agreed that immigrants always face a lot of hardships compared to the normal citizens who have been living in the US. However even with them facing these challenges, it has not changed their social behavior (MacDonald and Sampson, 2012).
MacDonald and Sampson (2012) go on to say that cities that have experienced an influx in immigrants, has seen a decrease in crime rate. It is good to also note that we cannot generalize immigrants since they all come from different parts of the world. They are those that come from violence prone areas and therefore may exhibit violent behaviors or may not also exhibit violent be...