Immigration and crime: do Asian immigrants bring more crimes to Australia?

Abstract

The link between the increased Asian immigration to Australia and crime rates has been subjected to debates in Australian contemporary society. With the concern of Australia being overwhelmed by Asians, some politicians, scholars and the public strongly oppose the increase in Asian immigrants. Most of anti-Asian debates are however based on rather subjective claims that Asian immigrants bring more crimes and social disorders to Australia, and these claims have not been supported by any convincing empirical research. Applying multivariate regression analysis, this paper statistically examines the relationship between Asian population, Asian immigrants and crime rates in six states and two territories of Australia from 1981 to 2004. After controlling for the relevant factors such as the population size, state-specific fixed effects, and a measure of urbanisation, the results are mixed. On the one hand, an increase in Asian immigrants has no effect on crime against persons and crime against properties. On the other hand, an increase in the size of Asian population has a statistically significant effect on crime against persons.