IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp12551.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Halting Refugee Resettlement Reduce Crime? Evidence from the United States Refugee Ban

Author

Listed:
  • Masterson, Daniel

    (Stanford University)

  • Yasenov, Vasil

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

Many countries have reduced refugee admissions in recent years, in part due to fears that refugees and asylum seekers increase crime rates and pose a national security risk. Existing research presents ambiguous expectations about the consequences of refugee resettlement on crime. We leverage a natural experiment in the United States, where an Executive Order by the president in January 2017 halted refugee resettlement. This policy change was sudden and significant – it resulted in the lowest number of refugees resettled on US soil since 1977 and a 66% drop in resettlement from 2016 to 2017. We find that there is no discernible effect on county-level crime rates. These null effects are consistent across all types of crime and precisely estimated. Overall, the results suggest that crime rates would have been similar had refugee arrivals continued at previous levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Masterson, Daniel & Yasenov, Vasil, 2019. "Does Halting Refugee Resettlement Reduce Crime? Evidence from the United States Refugee Ban," IZA Discussion Papers 12551, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12551
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp12551.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milo Bianchi & Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Pinotti, 2012. "Do Immigrants Cause Crime?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1318-1347, December.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5382 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Christian Dustmann & Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale & Uta Schönberg, 2017. "On the economics and politics of refugee migration," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 32(91), pages 497-550.
    4. Zhang, Haimin, 2014. "Immigration and Crime: Evidence from Canada," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2014-20, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Apr 2014.
    5. Brian Bell & Francesco Fasani & Stephen Machin, 2013. "Crime and Immigration: Evidence from Large Immigrant Waves," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1278-1290, October.
    6. Thomas J. Miles & Adam B. Cox, 2014. "Does Immigration Enforcement Reduce Crime? Evidence from Secure Communities," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(4), pages 937-973.
    7. Freeman, Richard B., 1999. "The economics of crime," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 52, pages 3529-3571, Elsevier.
    8. Piopiunik, Marc & Ruhose, Jens, 2017. "Immigration, regional conditions, and crime: Evidence from an allocation policy in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 258-282.
    9. Kristin F. Butcher & Anne Morrison Piehl, 1998. "Cross-city evidence on the relationship between immigration and crime," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 457-493.
    10. Dehos, Fabian T., 2017. "The refugee wave to Germany and its impact on crime," Ruhr Economic Papers 737, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    11. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Bansak, Cynthia & Pozo, Susan, 2018. "Refugee Admissions and Public Safety: Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?," IZA Discussion Papers 11612, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stacey A. Shaw & Graeme Rodgers & Patrick Poulin & Olive Minor & Ashley Allen, 2021. "Safety Among Newly Resettled Refugees in the USA," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1045-1062, September.
    2. Michael A Clemens, 2022. "The economic and fiscal effects on the United States from reduced numbers of refugees and asylum seekers," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 449-486.
    3. Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Vasilakis, Chrysovalantis, 2023. "The effects of exposure to refugees on crime: Evidence from the Greek islands," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Brandyn F. Churchill & Andrew Dickinson & Taylor Mackay & Joseph J. Sabia, 2022. "The Effect of E-Verify Laws on Crime," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(5), pages 1294-1320, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masterson, Daniel & Yasenov, Vasil, 2018. "Does Halting Refugee Resettlement Reduce Crime? Evidence from the US Refugee Ban," SocArXiv w2x7p, Center for Open Science.
    2. Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Vasilakis, Chrysovalantis, 2023. "The effects of exposure to refugees on crime: Evidence from the Greek islands," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Huang, Yue & Kvasnicka, Michael, 2019. "Immigration and Crimes against Natives: The 2015 Refugee Crisis in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 12469, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Kayaoglu, Aysegul, 2022. "Do refugees cause crime?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    5. Lange, Martin & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2024. "Do refugees impact crime? Causal evidence from large-scale refugee immigration to Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Bansak, Cynthia & Pozo, Susan, 2018. "Refugee Admissions and Public Safety: Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?," IZA Discussion Papers 11612, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Dehos, Fabian T., 2021. "The refugee wave to Germany and its impact on crime," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Francesco Fasani, 2018. "Immigrant crime and legal status: evidence from repeated amnesty programs," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 887-914.
    9. Rita Maghularia & Silke Uebelmesser, 2019. "Do Immigrants Affect Crime? Evidence from Panel Data for Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 7696, CESifo.
    10. Maghularia, Rita & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2023. "Do immigrants affect crime? Evidence for Germany," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 486-512.
    11. Deole, Sumit S. & Huang, Yue, 2020. "How do new immigration flows affect existing immigrants? Evidence from the refugee crisis in Germany," GLO Discussion Paper Series 579, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Jakub Lonsky & Isabel Ruiz & Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2022. "Trade Networks, Heroin Markets, and the Labor Market Outcomes of Vietnam Veterans," Working Papers 202203, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    13. Knight, Brian & Tribin, Ana, 2023. "Immigration and violent crime: Evidence from the Colombia-Venezuela Border," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Lonsky, Jakub & Ruiz, Isabel & Vargas-Silva, Carlos, 2022. "Trade networks, heroin markets, and the labor market outcomes of Vietnam veterans," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Ramón Rey & Günther G. Schulze & Nikita Zakharov, 2024. "Transit Migration and Crime: Evidence from Colombia," Discussion Paper Series 44 JEL Classification: J1, Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg, revised Jan 2024.
    16. Zhang, Haimin, 2014. "Immigration and Crime: Evidence from Canada," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2014-20, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Apr 2014.
    17. Ajzenman, Nicolas & Dominguez-Rivera, Patricio & Undurraga, Raimundo, 2021. "Immigration, Crime, and Crime (Mis)Perceptions," IZA Discussion Papers 14087, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Leiva, Mauricio & Vasquez-Lavín, Felipe & Ponce Oliva, Roberto D., 2020. "Do immigrants increase crime? Spatial analysis in a middle-income country," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    19. Ryan Abman & Hisham Foad, 2022. "Border Walls and Crime: Evidence From the Secure Fence Act," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 167-197, April.
    20. Rita Maghularia & Silke Uebelmesser, 2019. "Zuwanderung und Kriminalität in Deutschland," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 26(05), pages 20-25, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; refugees; crime;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12551. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.