sabato 17 novembre 2012

Immigrants and Crime


In every national newspaper we find a lot of article talking about crime committed by immigrants. The journalist emphasizes the nationality of the criminal, so the population has the perception that immigrants committed much more crimes. Much of the debate regarding immigration is driven by hysteria, facts are secondary.
Although we have a long tradition of blaming immigrants for crime (and other social ills), the facts show that – all else being equal – unauthorized immigrants commit crimes at rates far lower than natives. In fact, immigration lowers violent crime.
For example, as the immigrant population of the United States boomed during the 1990s, violent crime across the country plummeted, including in big-city immigrant gateways like Los Angeles and New York.
In every society, where the problem of immigration is cherished, the immigrants are the cause of all the problems of the Nation. This happens, probably because, the newspaper underlines the fact that the criminal is immigrant with title like: “Nigerian immigrant committed a bloody murder” or “Rumenian illegal immigrant committed a holdup”. Obviosly the illegal immigrants are often charged by national population of all crimes committed. The national population is often afraid by immigrants, even though this immigrants are honest people.  

And you, what do you think?

3 commenti:

  1. I believe that the crimes in our country can be divided exactly between Italian citizens and foreign immigrants. Is always wrong to blame immigrants for everything happening in Italy. This happens because our society has become accustomed to living according to stereotypes. The mass media and television continue to build some pictures of migrants often wrong. Is time to starting to classify the people by their contribution to the society, willingness to work and moral commitment and not by skin color and origin. Studies and reports were commissioned to "prove" that southern and eastern Europeans were racially inferior to northern and western Europeans. Immigration policies were influenced by these reports and studies, and also contributed to the growing isolationist viewpoint of government policymakers of various Country.

    Andrea Scapin

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  2. In my opinion sometimes newspapers try to exploit mental simplifications "stereotypes" to pander some people's ideas and increase sales. Many newspapers for example show to common people immigration as a cause of several social problems. In general I think that immigration needs to be handled differently to avoid becoming in our country, as in other, a security issue. Nowadays is impossible to imagine a society without sharing place with foreign people. The poorly managed phenomenon of immigration often takes the form of flows of people, fleeing from very poor countries and without the means to integrate in other societies. The problems of violence and crimes in many cases are exploited by the media and presented as a result of immigration. Immigration is filtered to ordinary people in a negative and dangerous way, not as a possible cultural enrichment.

    Gianmarco Del Giudice

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  3. I agree that in many newspapers, crimes committed by immigrants are emphasized. I believe that newspapers that publish these stories have the intent to increase sales, when a crime is committed by an Italian citizen, in the article the journalist does not specify that the criminal is Italian, however if a crime is committed by a foreign person, the reporter also said nationality. I think the crimes should be treated as serious acts regardless of who makes them. We live in a society too xenophobic!
    Elsa Pasqual

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