Immigration and Violent Crime: Evidence from the Colombia-Venezuela Border

Serie

•  Working Papers Brown University

Resumen

• This paper investigates the link between violent crime and immigration using data from Colombian municipalities during the recent episode of immigration from Venezuela. The key finding is that, following the closing and then re-opening of the border in 2016, which precipitated a massive immigration wave, homicides in Colombia increased in areas close to the border with Venezuela. Using information on the nationality of the victim, we find that this increase was driven by homicides involving Venezuelan victims, with no evidence of a statistically significant increase in homicides in which Colombians were victimized. Thus, in contrast to xenophobic fears that migrants might victimize natives, it was migrants, rather than natives, who faced risks associated with immigration. Using arrests data, there is no corresponding increase in arrests for homicides in these areas. Taken together, these results suggest that the increase in homicides close to the border documented here are driven by crimes against migrants and have occurred without a corresponding increase in arrests, suggesting that some of these crimes have gone unsolved.

autores

• Tribín, Ana María
• Knight, Brian

fecha de publicación

• 2020

Área temática

• J15 - Economía de las minorías, de las razas, de los pueblos indígenas y de los inmigrantes; No discriminación laboral
• J18 - Economía demográfica: Política pública
• K42 - Conducta ilegal y aplicación de la ley

Enfoque geográfico

• Colombia  Country
• South America  Continent
• Venezuela  Country

Líneas de investigación

• Crime
• Migration
• Venezuela

Issue

• 2020-21