SPECIAL REPORT

The Myth of Immigrant
Criminality and the
Paradox of Assimilation:
Incarceration Rates among Native and
Foreign-Born Men
Spring 2007

Immigration Polic y Center
A division of the Am e ri ca n Im m i gra t i o n L a w Fo u n d at i o n

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Rubén G. Rumbaut is a Professor of Sociology at the University of
California, Irvine. He is coauthor and coeditor of Immigrant America:
A Portrait, the 3rd edition of which was published in 2006.
Walter A. Ewing is a Research Associate at the Immigration Policy
Center and has been researching and writing on immigration policy
since 1998. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the City
University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School in 1997.

© Copyright 2007 by the American Immigration Law Foundation.

American Immigration Law Foundation
918 F Street, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20004
website: www.ailf.org

The Myth of Immigrant Criminality
and the Paradox of Assimilation:
Incarceration Rates Among Native And Foreign-born Men
by Rubén G. Rumbaut, Ph.D.
and Walter A. Ewing, Ph.D.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

B

ecause many immigrants to the United States, especially
Mexicans and Central Americans, are young men who
arrive with very low levels of formal education, popular stereotypes tend to associate them with higher rates of crime
and incarceration. The fact that many of these immigrants
enter the country through unauthorized channels or overstay
their visas often is framed as an assault against the “rule of
law,” thereby reinforcing the impression that immigration
and criminality are linked. This association has flourished
in a post-9/11 climate of fear and ignorance where terrorism
and undocumented immigration often are mentioned in the
same breath.

But anecdotal impression cannot substitute for scientific evidence. In fact, data from the census and other
sources show that for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for
immigrants, even those who are the least educated. This
holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and
Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented
population. What is more, these patterns have been observed consistently over the last three decennial censuses, a
period that spans the current era of mass immigration, and
recall similar national-level findings reported by three major government commissions during the first three decades
of the 20th century. The problem of crime in the United States
is not “caused” or even aggravated by immigrants, regardless
of their legal status. But the misperception that the opposite is
true persists among policymakers, the media, and the general
public, thereby undermining the development of reasoned
public responses to both crime and immigration.
Among the findings in this report:

Crime Rates Have Declined as Immigration Has Increased
Even as the undocumented population has doubled to
12 million since 1994, the violent crime rate in the United
States has declined 34.2 percent and the property crime rate
has fallen 26.4 percent.
Cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami also have experienced
declining crime rates during this period.
Immigrants Have Lower Incarceration Rates than Natives
Among men age 18-39 (who comprise the vast majority
of the prison population), the 3.5 percent incarceration rate
of the native-born in 2000 was 5 times higher than the 0.7
percent incarceration rate of the foreign-born.
The foreign-born incarceration rate in 2000 was nearly
two-and-a-half times less than the 1.7 percent rate for nativeborn non-Hispanic white men and almost 17 times less than
the 11.6 percent rate for native-born black men.
Native-born Hispanic men were nearly 7 times more
likely to be in prison than foreign-born Hispanic men in
2000, while the incarceration rate of native-born nonHispanic white men was almost 3 times higher than that of
foreign-born white men.
Foreign-born Mexicans had an incarceration rate of only
0.7 percent in 2000—more than 8 times lower than the
5.9 percent rate of native-born males of Mexican descent.
Foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan men had an incarceration rate of 0.5 percent, compared to 3.0 percent of
native-born males of Salvadoran and Guatemalan descent.

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

was nearly 8 times lower than the 4.7 percent incarceration
rate among native-born men of Salvadoran and Guatemalan
descent who lacked high-school diplomas.

Foreign-born Chinese/Taiwanese men had an extremely
low incarceration rate of 0.2 percent in 2000, which was threeand-a-half times lower than the 0.7 percent incarceration rate
of native-born men of Chinese/Taiwanese descent.

The 0.9 percent incarceration rate of foreign-born Vietnamese high-school dropouts in 2000 was vastly lower than
the 16.2 percent rate of native-born high-school dropouts of
Vietnamese descent. The incarceration rate of native-born
high-school dropouts of Indian descent (6.7 percent) was far
greater than the 0.3 percent rate among foreign-born Indian
high-school dropouts.

The incarceration rate of foreign-born Laotian and
Cambodian men (0.9 percent) was the highest among Asian
immigrant groups in 2000, but was more than 8 times lower
than that of native-born men of Laotian and Cambodian
descent (7.3 percent).
With the exception of Laotians and Cambodians, foreign-born men from Asian countries had lower incarceration
rates than those from Latin American countries, as did their
native-born counterparts. This is not surprising given that
immigrants from India, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and the
Philippines are among the most educated groups in the United
States, while immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, Mexico, and
Central American countries are among the least educated.

The Paradox of Assimilation
The higher rate of imprisonment for native-born men
than foreign-born men highlights a darker side to assimilation than is commonly recognized.
The process of assimilation often involves the acquisition
by immigrants and their descendants of English-language
proficiency, higher levels of education, valuable new job skills,
and other attributes that ease their entry into U.S. society and
improve their chances of success in the U.S. economy.

Immigrants Have Lower Incarceration Rates than Natives
among High-School Dropouts
For all ethnic groups, the risk of imprisonment was highest for men who were high-school dropouts. But among the
foreign-born, the incarceration gap by education was much
narrower than for the native-born.

However, other aspects of assimilation are not as positive. For instance, immigrants, especially those from Latin
America, have lower rates of adult and infant mortality and
give birth to fewer underweight babies than natives despite
higher poverty rates and greater barriers to health care. But
their health status—and that of their children—worsens the
longer they live in the United States and with increasing
acculturation.

The highest incarceration rate among U.S.-born men
who had not finished high school was seen among nonHispanic blacks, 22.3 percent of whom were imprisoned in
2000—more than triple the 7.1 percent incarceration rate
among foreign-born black high-school dropouts.

The children and grandchildren of many immigrants—as
well as many immigrants themselves the longer they live in
the United States—become subject to economic and social
forces, such as higher rates of family disintegration and drug
and alcohol addiction, that increase the likelihood of criminal
behavior among other natives.

The incarceration rate of native-born Hispanic men without a high-school diploma in 2000 (12.4 percent) was more
than 11 times higher than the 1.1 percent rate of foreign-born
Hispanic high-school dropouts.
Foreign-born Mexicans without a high-school diploma
had an incarceration rate of 0.7 percent in 2000—more than
14 times less than the 10.1 percent of native-born male highschool dropouts of Mexican descent behind bars.

The risk of incarceration is higher not only for the children of immigrants, but for immigrants themselves the longer
they have resided in the United States. However, even immigrants who had resided in the United States for 16+ years
were far less likely to be incarcerated than their native-born
counterparts.

Only 0.6 percent of foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan high-school dropouts in 2000 were in prison, which

2

PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF IMMIGRANTS
AND CRIME

[and] personal injury and damage caused by the criminal
conduct of illegal aliens in this state.”4

M

yths and stereotypes about immigrants and crime often provide the underpinnings for public policies and
practices.1 These stereotypes are propagated through movies
and television series like The Untouchables, The Godfather,
Scarface, Miami Vice, and The Sopranos—all of which project
an enduring image of immigrant communities permeated
by criminal elements. Moreover, the media long have been
replete with stories of violent crimes committed by the Italian
mafia, Cuban marielitos, Colombian cocaine cartels, Japanese
yakuza, Chinese triads, and Central American gangs such as
the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Similar views
greeted Irish, Jewish, Polish, and other immigrants in the
19th and early 20th centuries.

Similarly, the “Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance”
passed in 2006 by the city council of Hazleton, Pennsylvania—the first of a number of such ordinances passed by local
councils in 2006—declares in part that “illegal immigration
leads to higher crime rates” and seeks accordingly to secure for
the city’s legal residents and citizens “the right to live in peace
free of the threat of crime” and to protect them from “crime
committed by illegal aliens.”5 Such attitudes find support at
the highest levels of political leadership. For instance, in his
May 15, 2006, address to the nation on immigration reform,
President George W. Bush asserted that: “Illegal immigration
puts pressure on public schools and hospitals, it strains state
and local budgets, and brings crime to our communities.”6

The extent to which stereotypes such as these have permeated U.S. society is apparent in the results of the National
Opinion Research Center’s 2000 General Social Survey, which
interviewed a nationally representative sample of adults to
measure attitudes toward and perceptions of immigration in
a “multi-ethnic United States.” Asked whether “more immigrants cause higher crime rates,” 25 percent said “very likely”
and another 48 percent “somewhat likely.” In other words,
about three-fourths (73 percent) of Americans believed that
immigration is causally related to more crime. That was a
much higher proportion than the 60 percent who believed
that “more immigrants were [somewhat or very] likely to
cause Americans to lose jobs,” or the 56 percent who thought
that “more immigrants were [somewhat or very] likely to
make it harder to keep the country united.”2

The misperception that the foreign-born, especially illegal
immigrants, are responsible for higher crime rates is deeply
rooted in American public opinion and is sustained by media
anecdote and popular myth. But this perception is not supported empirically. In fact, it is refuted by the preponderance
of scientific evidence. Both contemporary and historical data,
including investigations carried out by major government
commissions over the past century, have shown repeatedly
and systematically that immigration actually is associated
with lower crime rates.

A NEW ERA OF MASS IMMIGRATION

A

fter a period of mass immigration from Europe in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States experienced a relative lull in immigration from the 1920s to the
1960s. But the past few decades have ushered in a new era of
large-scale immigration which has accelerated since the 1980s.
This time the flows have come largely from Latin America and
Asia, not from Europe. Over the past 15 years, the number
of immigrants—both “legal” and “illegal”7—coming to the
United States has been the largest in its history in absolute
terms. However, the percentage of the U.S. population that
is foreign-born remains below the post-1850 highs recorded
by each decennial census from 1860 through 1920, when
immigrants comprised more than 13 percent of the population.8 According to the most recently available national data,
in 2006 the foreign-born population totaled about 38.1 million, or just under 13 percent of the U.S. population.9

Periods of increased immigration have historically been
accompanied by nativist alarms, perceptions of threat, and
pervasive stereotypes of newcomers, particularly during economic downturns or national crises (such as the 2000-2002
economic recession and the “war on terror” of the post-9/11
era), and when immigrants have arrived en masse and differed
substantially from the native-born in religion, language,
physical appearance, and world region of origin.3 The present
period is no exception. California’s Proposition 187, which
was passed with 59 percent of the statewide vote in 1994 (but
challenged as unconstitutional and overturned by a federal
court), asserted in its opening lines that “the people of California…have suffered and are suffering economic hardship

3

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

rate of natives declines and a growing number of native-born
workers retire.12 As the Congressional Budget Office put it
in a 2005 report: “The baby-boom generation’s exit from the
labor force could well foreshadow a major shift in the role of
foreign-born workers in the labor force. Unless native fertility
rates increase, it is likely that most of the growth in the U.S.
labor force will come from immigration by the middle of
the century.”13 Conventional wisdom presumes a connection
between the characteristics of workers who fill less-skilled jobs
(young, male, poor, high-school dropout, ethnic minority)
and the likelihood of involvement with crime, all the more
when those young male workers are illegal migrants. But if
immigration (legal or illegal) were associated with increasing
crime rates, the official crime statistics would clearly reveal
it. The opposite, however, is the case.

Roughly 12 million immigrants, or 30 percent of all
foreign-born persons in the country, are unauthorized. The
number of illegal immigrants has more than doubled since
1994. According to estimates by demographer Jeffrey Passel of
the Pew Hispanic Center, by 2005 two-thirds (66 percent) of
the unauthorized population had been in the country for 10
years or less, and the largest share, 40 percent or 4.4 million
people, had been in the country five years or less. There were
1.8 million children who were unauthorized, or 16 percent
of the total. In addition, 3.1 million children who are U.S.
citizens by birth were living in households in which the head
of the family or a spouse was unauthorized. About 56 percent
of the unauthorized population was from Mexico, and another
22 percent from elsewhere in Latin America. The rest come
from Asia, Europe, Canada, Africa, and elsewhere.10
Since 1993, the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border
in four key sectors from San Diego to El Paso and the lower
Rio Grande Valley, including a tripling of the number of
Border Patrol agents and a quadrupling of the Border Patrol
budget, has not deterred the flow of unauthorized migrants.
Rather, as shown by several expert analyses, it has led to a
booming industry of professional smugglers (coyotes) and redirected the flow of undocumented immigrants through more
isolated and dangerous desert terrain, resulting in hundreds
of deaths each year. Moreover, undocumented immigrants
are heading to new destinations across all 50 states, including communities like Hazleton, rather than just traditional
destinations in California and Texas. Another unintended
consequence of heightened border enforcement is that the
largely temporary population of “sojourner” workers that
predominated in the past has been transformed into a population of permanent “settlers” who bring their families and
stay, since the risks and costs of dangerous border crossings
have sharply increased. For instance, in recent years coyotes
have charged Mexican migrants about $3,000 per person to
cross the border.11

CRIME RATES HAVE DECLINED AS
IMMIGRATION HAS INCREASED

A

t the same time that immigration—especially undocumented immigration—has reached and surpassed
historic highs, crime rates in the United States have declined,
notably in cities with large immigrant populations (including
cities with large numbers of undocumented immigrants such
as Los Angeles and border cities like San Diego and El Paso,
as well as New York, Chicago, and Miami). The Uniform
Crime Reports released each year by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) demonstrate the decline of both violent
crime and property crime at the same time that the foreignborn population has grown.
From 1994 to 2005, the violent crime rate overall declined 34.2 percent, reaching the lowest level ever in 2005. In
particular, homicide rates fell 37.8 percent to levels last seen
in the late 1960s, robbery rates dropped 40.8 percent, and
assault rates declined 31.9 percent {Figure 1}.14 Moreover, the
proportion of serious violent crimes committed by juveniles
decreased during this period and the number of gun crimes
stabilized at levels last seen in 1988.15

Nonetheless, the illegal immigrant population still is
disproportionately made up of poor young males who have
recently arrived from Mexico—as well as from El Salvador,
Guatemala, and a few other Latin American countries—to
work in low-wage jobs requiring little formal education. These
migrants are responding to the growing demand for their
labor generated by the U.S. economy, which faces a demographic challenge to future labor-force growth as the fertility

The property crime rate as a whole declined 26.4 percent
between 1994 and 2005. Specifically, burglary rates have
stabilized after years of decline, theft rates reached the lowest level ever recorded in 2005, and motor-vehicle theft rates
leveled off after 2000 {Figure 2}.16

4

Figure 1:
U.S. VIOLENT CRIME RATE, 1994-2005

800
ALL VIOLENT
CRIMES

Offenses per 100,000

700
600

Aggravated
assault

500
400

Robbery

300
Forcible rape

200
100
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Murder &
nonnegligent
manslaughter

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics-Data Online, “Reported Crime in United States-Total.”

Figure 2:
U.S. PROPERTY CRIME RATE, 1994-2005

5,000
4,500

ALL
PROPERTY
CRIMES

Offenses per 100,000

4,000
3,500

Larceny-theft

3,000
2,500
2,000

Burglary

1,500
1,000

Motor vehicle
theft

500
0
1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics-Data Online, “Reported Crime in United States-Total.”

5

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

INCARCERATION RATES HAVE INCREASED

born population than of the native-born, especially illegal
immigrants. Foreign-born Mexican men comprise a third of
all immigrant men between the ages of 18 and 39, have the
lowest levels of education of any ethnic group in the country,
and account for the majority of illegal immigrants. Therefore,
they would be expected to have the highest rates of imprisonment, followed by Salvadorans and Guatemalans. However,
an analysis of data from the 2000 U.S. Census23 reveals just
the opposite to be the case.

H

owever, alongside this new era of immigration, the U.S.
incarceration rate has become the highest of any country in the world. There are more people behind bars in the
United States than in either China or India, each of which has
a population roughly 4 times larger than the United States.17
Between 1980 and 2005, the number of adults incarcerated
in federal or state prisons or in local jails in the United States
quadrupled from just over 500,000 to 2.2 million. This
amounts to an increase in the incarceration rate from 139
prisoners for every 100,000 people in the country to 491 per
100,000. Two-thirds of those are in federal or state prisons
and one-third in local jails. The vast majority are young men
between the age of 18 and 39.18 According to a 1998 study
by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
at Columbia University, about 80 percent of those in prison
either violated drug or alcohol laws, were high at the time
they committed their crimes, stole property to buy drugs, had
a history of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction, or some
combination of those characteristics.19

In 2000, 3 percent of the 45.2 million males age 18 to 39
in the United States were in federal or state prisons or local jails
at the time of the census. Surprisingly, at least from the vantage
point of conventional wisdom, the incarceration rate of nativeborn men in this age group (3.5 percent) was 5 times higher
than the incarceration rate of foreign-born men (0.7 percent).
The foreign-born rate was nearly two-and-a-half times less
than the 1.7 percent rate for native-born non-Hispanic white
men and almost 17 times less than the 11.6 percent rate for
native-born non-Hispanic black men. The lower incarceration
rate among immigrants was found in every pan-ethnic category
without exception. For instance, native-born Hispanic men
were nearly 7 times more likely to be in prison than foreignborn Hispanic men, while the incarceration rate of native-born
non-Hispanic white men was almost 3 times higher than that
of foreign-born white men {Figure 3}.

Department of Justice statistics on incarceration are not
broken down by nativity or generation, but the available data
indicate that imprisonment rates vary widely by gender, ethnicity, and education. In 2005, about 93 percent of inmates
in federal and state prisons were men, and there were 3,145
non-Hispanic black male prisoners per 100,000 black males
in the United States and 1,244 Hispanic males per 100,000,
compared to 471 non-Hispanic white males per 100,000.20
The majority of prison inmates are high-school dropouts.21
Among some minorities, particularly native-born blacks,
imprisonment has become a common and defining event for
men in early adulthood. As sociologists Becky Pettit and Bruce
Western have noted, black men born in the late 1960s were,
by the end of the 1990s, more likely to have prison records
than either military records or college degrees, and those who
were high-school dropouts had a nearly 60 percent chance of
having served time in prison.22

There also was wide variation in the incarceration rates of
native and foreign-born men within particular ethnic groups.
Among Hispanic men, for example, foreign-born Mexicans
had an incarceration rate of only 0.7 percent—more than 8
times lower than the 5.9 percent rate of native-born males of
Mexican descent. Similarly, 0.5 percent of foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan men were in prison, compared to 3.0
percent of native-born males of Salvadoran and Guatemalan
descent {Figure 4}.24 The incarceration rates of foreign-born
Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans were the lowest of
any Latin American immigrant group even though they were
the least educated. These three nationalities are precisely the
groups that make up the majority of illegal immigrants in
the United States.

IMMIGRANTS’ INCARCERATION RATES
ARE LOWER THAN NATIVES’

C

onventional theories of crime and incarceration predict higher rates of imprisonment for younger and less
educated adult males from minority groups—characteristics
which describe a much greater proportion of the foreign-

A similar range of variation was found among Asian
men. For instance, foreign-born Chinese/Taiwanese men
had an extremely low incarceration rate of 0.2 percent,
which was three-and-a-half times lower than the 0.7 percent

6

Figure 3:

y

INCARCERATION RATES OF MALES AGE 18-39 BY PAN-ETHNIC CATEGORY & NATIVITY, 2000

12%
10%
8%
Foreign-born
Native-born

6%
4%
2%
0%
Non-Hispanic Black

Hispanic

Non-Hispanic White

Non-Hispanic Asian

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.

Figure 4:
INCARCERATION RATES OF HISPANIC MALES AGE 18-39 BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & NATIVITY, 2000

6%
Foreign-born
Native-born

5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
R
rto
e
u
P

*
ican

n
nica
i
m
Do

an
Cub

an
ruvi
e
P
n/
oria
d
a
/Ecu
n
a
i
o mb
Col

ican
Mex
S

m
uate
G
/
n
ora
d
a
v
al

alan

Source: Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.
*Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, not immigrants, for the purposes of this table those born on the island are classified as “foreign-born” and those born on the
mainland as “native-born.”

7

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

incarceration rate of native-born men of Chinese/Taiwanese
descent. The incarceration rate of foreign-born Laotian and
Cambodian men (0.9 percent) was the highest among Asian
immigrant groups, but was more than 8 times lower than that
of native-born men of Laotian and Cambodian descent (7.3
percent). With the exception of Laotians and Cambodians,
foreign-born men from Asian countries had lower incarceration rates than those from Latin American countries, as did
their native-born counterparts. This is not surprising given
that immigrants from India, Taiwan, China, South Korea,
and the Philippines are among the most educated groups in
the United States, while immigrants from Cambodia, Laos,
Mexico, and Central American countries are among the least
educated {Figure 5}.25

rest of the United States, while the foreign-born had lower
rates in California compared to the rest of the country. The
incarceration rate for the native-born was more than one
percentage point higher in California than in the rest of
the country (4.5 percent vs. 3.4 percent). In contrast, the
incarceration rate for the foreign-born in California was less
than half the foreign-born rate in the rest of the country (0.4
percent vs. 1.0 percent).

IMMIGRANTS’ INCARCERATION RATES
ARE LOWER THAN NATIVES’ AMONG
HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUTS

F

or all ethnic groups, as expected, the risk of imprisonment
was highest for men who were high-school dropouts (6.9
percent) compared to those who were high-school graduates
(2.0 percent). However, the greatest difference in the risk of
incarceration by education was observed among native-born
men, not immigrants. Among the U.S.-born, 9.8 percent of
all male high-school dropouts were in jail or prison in 2000,
compared to 2.2 percent among high-school graduates. But
among the foreign-born, the incarceration gap by education

The 2000 Census data yielded comparable results for
California, the state with the greatest number of both legal
and illegal immigrants—over a quarter of the national total,
including the largest concentrations by far of Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans—and with the greatest number
of people in prisons and jails. Overall, native-born men age
18 to 39 in California had higher incarceration rates than the

Figure 5:
INCARCERATION RATES OF ASIAN MALES AGE 18-39 BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & NATIVITY, 2000

8%
7%
Foreign-born
Native-born

6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
L

d
m bo
a
C
an/
aoti

ian

ese
m
a
n
t
Vie

in
Filip

o

K or

ean
C

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.

8

s
ane
w
i
a
se/T
hine

e

ian
Ind

Figure 6:
INCARCERATION RATES OF MALE HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUTS AGE 18-39
BY PAN-ETHNIC CATEGORY & NATIVITY, 2000

25%
Foreign-born
Native-born

20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Non-Hispanic Black

Non-Hispanic White

Hispanic

Non-Hispanic Asian

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.

was much narrower. Only 1.3 percent of immigrant men who
were high-school dropouts were incarcerated, compared to
0.6 percent of those with at least a high-school diploma.

group. Among Hispanics, 0.7 percent of foreign-born Mexicans without a high-school diploma were imprisoned—more
than 14 times less than the 10.1 percent of native-born male
high-school dropouts of Mexican descent behind bars. Only
0.6 percent of foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan
high-school dropouts were in prison, which was nearly 8
times lower than the 4.7 percent incarceration rate among
native-born men of Salvadoran and Guatemalan descent who
lacked high-school diplomas {Figure 7}.

Nativity emerged as a stronger predictor of incarceration
than education for all ethnic categories. Among U.S.-born
men who had not finished high school, the highest incarceration rate by far was seen among non-Hispanic blacks, 22.3
percent of whom were imprisoned at the time of the 2000
Census—more than triple the 7.1 percent incarceration rate
among foreign-born black high-school dropouts.26 Among
non-Hispanic whites who had not finished high school, 4.8
percent of the U.S.-born were in prison, triple the 1.6 percent
rate among foreign-born white high-school dropouts. The
incarceration rate of native-born Hispanic men without a
high-school diploma (12.4 percent) was more than 11 times
higher than the 1.1 percent rate of foreign-born Hispanic
high-school dropouts {Figure 6}.

Even greater differences between the incarceration rates
of native-born and foreign-born men without a high-school
diploma were found among Asian groups. The 0.9 percent
incarceration rate of foreign-born Vietnamese high-school
dropouts was vastly lower than the 16.2 percent rate of
native-born high-school dropouts of Vietnamese descent.
Similarly, the incarceration rate of native-born high-school
dropouts of Indian descent (6.7 percent) was far greater than
the 0.3 percent rate among foreign-born Indian high-school
dropouts {Figure 8}.

Again, there was considerable variation in the incarceration rates of male high-school dropouts within each ethnic

9

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

Figure 7:
INCARCERATION RATES OF HISPANIC MALE HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUTS AGE 18-39
BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & NATIVITY, 2000

14%
12%

Foreign-born
Native-born

10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
r

Pue

*
ican
R
o
t

D

an
Cub

n
nica
i
m
o

n/
oria
d
a
u
/ Ec vian
n
a
i
u
omb Per
Col

alan
m
e
t
a
/Gu
n
a
r
ado
Salv

ican
Mex

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.
*Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, not immigrants, for the purposes of this table those born on the island are classified as “foreign-born” and those born on the
mainland as “native-born.”

Figure 8:
INCARCERATION RATES OF ASIAN MALE HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUTS AGE 18-39
BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & NATIVITY, 2000

18%
16%
14%
12%

Foreign-born
Native-born

10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%

ino
p
i
l
i
F

/C
tian
o
a
L

dian
o
b
am

/T

e
nes
Chi

e
nes
a
w
ai

se

me
a
n
t
Vie

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.

10

ean
Kor

ian
Ind

THE PARADOX OF ASSIMILATION

poor immigrants from non-European countries. As a result,
the children and grandchildren of many immigrants—as well
as many immigrants themselves the longer they live in the
United States—become subject to economic and social forces
that increase the likelihood of criminal behavior among other
natives. This is especially true in impoverished communities
where the native-born in particular are much more likely
than immigrants (especially recent immigrants) to experience
higher rates of divorce and drug and alcohol addiction.28

T

he higher rate of imprisonment for native-born men
than foreign-born men highlights a darker side to assimilation than is commonly recognized. It traditionally has
been assumed that assimilation involves the acquisition by
immigrants and their descendants of English-language proficiency, higher levels of education, valuable new job skills,
and other attributes that ease their entry into U.S. society
and improve their chances of success in the U.S. economy.
However, other aspects of assimilation are not as positive. For
instance, public-health experts have noted an “epidemiological paradox” among immigrants, especially those from Latin
America. On the one hand, they have lower rates of adult
and infant mortality and give birth to fewer underweight
babies than natives despite higher poverty rates and greater
barriers to health care. But, on the other hand, their health
status—and that of their children—worsens the longer they
live in the United States. As they adopt an “American” diet
high in fats, sugars, and processed foods, they experience
sharp increases in obesity and in the incidence of diseases
such as diabetes and high blood pressure.27

THE RISK OF INCARCERATION FOR
IMMIGRANTS INCREASES OVER TIME

T

he 2000 Census shows that the risk of incarceration
is higher not only for the children of immigrants, but
for immigrants themselves the longer they have resided in
the United States. Among foreign-born Hispanic men, the
incarceration rate nearly tripled from 0.6 percent for those
who had been in the United States 5 years or less to 1.7 percent for those with 16 or more years of residence. Similarly,
foreign-born non-Hispanic white men and black men who
had been in the country for 16 or more years were more than
twice as likely to be in prison as those who had been in the
United States for 5 years or less {Figure 9}. However, even

In addition, assimilation often entails incorporation into
“minority” status in the United States, particularly among
Figure 9:

INCARCERATION RATES OF FOREIGN-BORN MALES AGE 18-39
BY PAN-ETHNIC GROUP & LENGTH OF U.S. RESIDENCE, 2000

4.0%
3.5%
3.0%

0-5 yrs
6-15 yrs
16+ yrs

2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%

Non-Hispanic Black

Hispanic

Non-Hispanic White

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.

11

Non-Hispanic Asian

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

SIMILAR RESULTS FROM OTHER STUDIES

immigrants who had resided in the United States for 16+ years
were far less likely to be incarcerated than their native-born
counterparts in each pan-ethnic category.

T

he evidence from the 2000 Census demonstrating the
lower rate of incarceration among immigrants is reinforced by other studies conducted over the past century. For
instance, a study by economists Kristin Butcher and Anne
Morrison Piehl based on data from the 1980 and 1990 Censuses yielded similar findings.29 A more recent analysis by
Butcher and Piehl demonstrates that these findings are not the
result of increased deportations of non-citizen criminals or the
impact of harsher immigration laws in deterring immigrants
from committing crimes. Rather, the authors conclude that
during the 1990s, “those immigrants who chose to come to
the United States were less likely to be involved in criminal
activity than earlier immigrants and the native born.”30 Taken
together, studies such as these provide consistent and compelling evidence over a period of three decades that incarceration
rates are much lower among immigrant men than the national
norm despite their lower levels of education and higher rates

The increasing risk of incarceration among foreign-born
men the longer they reside in the United States varied among
the different nationalities within pan-ethnic categories.
Among foreign-born men from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cuba, the chance of being in prison was more
than twice as great for those in the country 16 years or more
as for those with 5 years or less of residence. The incarceration rate for Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Peruvians in the
country 5 years or less was more than 3 times lower than for
those with 16 or more years of residence {Figure 10}. Among
foreign-born Asian men, the risk of incarceration was 3 times
greater for Chinese/Taiwanese and Indian men with 16+
years of residence than for those with 0-5 years, and 5 times
greater for Koreans who had been in the country for 16 years
or more {Figure 11}.

Figure 10:
INCARCERATION RATES OF FOREIGN-BORN HISPANIC MALES AGE 18-39
BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & LENGTH OF U.S. RESIDENCE

7%
6%
0-5 yrs
6-15 yrs
16+ yrs

5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%

*
ican
R
rto
Pue

n
nica
i
m
Do

an
Cub

/
rian
o
d
a
/Ecu vian
n
a
i
ru
o m b Pe
Col

ican
Mex

al
tem
a
u
/G
ran
o
d
a
Salv

an

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.
*Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, not immigrants, for the purposes of this table those born on the island are classified as “foreign-born” and those born on the
mainland as “native-born.”

12

Figure 11:
INCARCERATION RATES OF FOREIGN-BORN ASIAN MALES AGE 18-39
BY NATIONAL ORIGIN & LENGTH OF U.S. RESIDENCE, 2000

1.4%
1.2%
0-5 yrs
6-15 yrs
16+ yrs

1.0%
0.8%
0.6%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%

ian*
d
o
amb
C
/
n
tia
Lao

ese
m
a
n
t
Vie

Filip

ino

K or

ean
C

s
ane
w
i
a
se/T
hine

e

ian
Ind

Source: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS.
*There were too few Laotian/Cambodian men who had been in the United States for 0-5 years as of 2000 to provide an accurate estimate.

of poverty. In 2000, these patterns applied to every ethnic
group without exception.

Mexico border cities such as El Paso with cities elsewhere in
the United States and found that crime rates generally were
lower in border cities.32

Other scholars, such as sociologist Robert J. Sampson,
have addressed similar questions concerning immigration
and crime and concluded that increased immigration is a
major factor associated with lower crime rates. In a study of
180 Chicago neighborhoods from 1995 to 2002, Sampson
and his colleagues found that Latin American immigrants
were less likely than the U.S.-born to commit violent crimes
even when they lived in dense communities with high rates
of poverty. First-generation immigrants (foreign-born) were
45 percent less likely to commit violent crimes than were
third-generation Americans (children of native-born parents), adjusting for family and neighborhood background.
The second generation (those born in the United States to
immigrant parents) was 22 percent less likely to commit violent crimes than the third or higher generation.31 Similarly,
the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform concluded
in a 1994 report that immigration is not associated with
higher crime. The Commission compared crime rates in U.S.-

Recent empirical studies by sociologists Ramiro Martínez
and Matthew Lee of homicides in three high-immigration
border cities (San Diego, El Paso, and Miami) and of drug
violence in Miami and San Diego came to similar conclusions,
further refuting commonly presumed linkages between immigration and criminality.33 In addition, several other studies
have examined homicide rates among the Cuban refugees who
arrived in the United States as a result of the Mariel Boatlift
of 1980. Although these marielitos frequently were depicted
in the media as prolific criminal offenders, even murderers,
they in fact were not overrepresented among either homicide
victims or offenders. Moreover, after only a short time in the
United States, they were much less likely to commit crimes
than Cubans who arrived in Miami before the Mariel Boatlift. As with south Florida in general, Miami experienced a
sharp spike in homicides before the Mariel Cubans arrived
in the city. Homicide rates continued to decline throughout

13

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

the 1980s despite a steady inflow of Latin American immigrants.34

them with higher rates of crime and incarceration. The fact
that many of these immigrants enter the country through
unauthorized channels or overstay their visas often is framed
as an assault against the “rule of law,” thereby reinforcing the
impression that immigration and criminality are linked. This
association has flourished in a post-9/11 climate of fear and
ignorance where terrorism and undocumented immigration
often are mentioned in the same breath.

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) further demonstrate the intra- and
inter-generational differences in delinquency and other risk
behaviors among adolescents. Add Health is a nationally
representative longitudinal survey of adolescents conducted
in several “waves” since 1994. Drawing upon this survey,
sociologists Kathleen Mullan Harris, and Hoan Bui and
Ornuma Thingniramol, have found that second-generation
youth were significantly more prone to engage in risk behaviors such as delinquency, violence, and substance abuse than
foreign-born youth. In their analyses, every first-generation
nationality had significantly fewer health problems and engaged in fewer risk behaviors than the comparable group of
native-born non-Hispanic whites.35

But anecdotal impression cannot substitute for scientific
evidence. In fact, data from the census and other sources show
that for every ethnic group, without exception, incarceration
rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even
those who are the least educated and the least acculturated.
This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and
Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented
population. What is more, these patterns have been observed
consistently over the last three decennial censuses, a period
that spans the current era of mass immigration and mass
imprisonment, and recall similar national-level findings reported by three major government commissions during the
first three decades of the 20th century.

In a sense, these findings should not come as news,
for they are not new—merely forgotten and overruled by
popular myth. In the first three decades of the 20th century,
during the previous era of mass immigration, three major
government commissions came to similar conclusions. The
Industrial Commission of 1901, the [Dillingham] Immigration Commission of 1911, and the [Wickersham] National
Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement of 1931
each sought to measure how immigration resulted in increases
in crime. Instead, each found lower levels of criminal involvement among the foreign-born and higher levels among their
native-born counterparts.36 As the report of the Dillingham
Commission concluded a century ago: “No satisfactory
evidence has yet been produced to show that immigration
has resulted in an increase in crime disproportionate to the
increase in adult population. Such comparable statistics of
crime and population as it has been possible to obtain indicate that immigrants are less prone to commit crime than
are native Americans.”37

Given the cumulative weight of this evidence, immigration is arguably one of the reasons that crime rates have
dropped in the United States over the past decade and a
half. Indeed, a further implication of this evidence is that if
immigrants suddenly disappeared and the country became
immigrant-free (and illegal-immigrant free), crime rates
would likely increase. The problem of crime and incarceration
in the United States is not “caused” or even aggravated by
immigrants, regardless of their legal status. But the misperception that the opposite is true persists among policymakers,
the media, and the general public, thereby undermining the
development of reasoned public responses to both crime and
immigration.

CONCLUSION

B

ecause many immigrants to the United States, especially
Mexicans and Central Americans, are young men who
arrive with very low levels of formal education, popular stereotypes and standard criminological theory tend to associate

14

ENDNOTES

Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. New York, NY: Russell
Sage Foundation, 2002, Chapter 6.
12
See Immigration Policy Center, Economic Growth and Immigration:
Bridging the Demographic Divide. Washington, DC: American
Immigration Law Foundation, November 2005.
13
Congressional Budget Office, The Role of Immigrants in the U.S.
Labor Market. Washington, DC: November 2005, p. 25.
14
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics—Data
Online, “Reported Crime in United States—Total, 1960-2005”
{http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?stateid=52}.
15
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Key Crime
and Justice Facts at a Glance” {http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.
htm}.
16
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Reported
Crime in United States-Total, 1960-2005.”
17
Roy Walmsley, World Prison Population List, 6th edition. London:
University of London, King’s College, School of Law, International
Centre for Prison Studies, February 2005, p. 1.
18
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Corrections Statistics” {http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm}; Paige
M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, Prisoners in 2005 (NCJ 215092).
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, November 2006, pp. 2, 8.
19
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at
Columbia University, Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s
Prison Population. New York: Columbia University, January 1998,
p. 2.
20
Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, Prisoners in 2005, November
2006, pp. 4, 8.
21
Caroline Wolf Harlow, Education and Correctional Populations (NCJ
195670). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of
Justice Statistics, January 2003, p. 2.
22
Becky Pettit and Bruce Western, “Mass Imprisonment and the Life
Course,” American Sociological Review 69 (2), April 2004: 156, 164.
23
Data from the 5% Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the
2000 Census are here used to measure the institutionalization rates
of immigrants and natives, focusing on males 18 to 39, among
whom the vast majority of the institutionalized are in correctional
facilities. For a description of the methodology used to produce
estimates of the incarcerated population from census data, see
Kristin F. Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl, Recent Immigrants:
Unexpected Implications for Crime and Incarceration (Working Paper
6067). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research,
June 1997.

1

See Ramiro Martínez, Jr. and Abel Valenzuela, Jr., eds., Immigration
and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence. New York: New York
University Press, 2006.
2
Rubén G. Rumbaut and Richard D. Alba, “Perceptions of Group
Size and Group Position in ‘Multi-Ethnic United States.’” Presented
at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association,
Atlanta, August 2003. See also Richard D. Alba, Rubén G.
Rumbaut and Karen Marotz, “A Distorted Nation: Perceptions of
Racial/Ethnic Group Sizes and Attitudes toward Immigrants and
Other Minorities,” Social Forces 84(2), December 2005: 899-917.
3
Brian N. Fry, Nativism and Immigration: Regulating the American
Dream. New York: LFB Scholarly, 2006.
4
California Ballot Proposition 187, Section 1 (1994).
5
City Council of Hazleton, PA, Ordinance 2006-18: “Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance,” Sections 2(C) and 2(F).
6
White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “President Bush Addresses the Nation on Immigration Reform,” May 15, 2006.
7
As used in this report, “legal” immigrants consist of Legal Permanent
Residents (LPRs)—about 40 percent of whom had been in the
United States in other statuses (including temporary or unauthorized) before becoming LPRs—as well as LPRs who subsequently
became naturalized U.S. citizens. “Illegal” immigrants are those who
entered the country without proper authorization, or who entered
the country lawfully with non-immigrant visas but subsequently
over-stayed or violated the terms of their visas. Visa over-stayers and
violators may make up as much as 40 percent of the illegal immigrant
population (See Jeffrey S. Passel, The Size and Characteristics of the
Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.: Estimates Based on
the March 2005 Current Population Survey. Washington, DC: Pew
Hispanic Center, March 7, 2006, p. 16).
8
Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, Historical Census Statistics on
the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000
(Population Division Working Paper No. 81). Washington, DC:
U.S. Census Bureau, February 2006, Table 1.
9
These figures are weighted estimates drawn from the March 2006
Current Population Survey (CPS).
10
Jeffrey S. Passel, The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized
Migrant Population in the U.S., March 7, 2006, pp. 2, 5, 7.
11
Wayne A. Cornelius, “Impacts of Border Enforcement on
Unauthorized Mexican Migration to the United States.” New
York: Social Science Research Council, on-line forum on “Border
Battles: The U.S. Immigration Debates,” September 26, 2006
{http://borderbattles.ssrc.org/Cornelius/}; Douglas S. Massey, Jorge
Durand and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican

15

IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER

24

31

Census Bureau data are not available on the specific ethnicities of
native-born, non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Therefore, comparisons of the native-born and foreign-born by ethnic group are
possible only for Hispanics and non-Hispanic Asians. In addition,
the native-born Hispanic category includes a sizeable number of
people who no longer identify themselves by a specific national
origin.
25
Data on education for these foreign-born populations are drawn
from the 2000 Census, 5% PUMS. See also Alejandro Portes and
Rubén G. Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait, 3rd edition.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
26
Foreign-born non-Hispanic blacks include Jamaicans, Haitians,
West Indians, Nigerians, etc.
27
See José J. Escarce, Leo S. Morales and Rubén G. Rumbaut,
“Health Status and Health Behaviors of Hispanics,” in Marta
Tienda and Faith Mitchell, eds., Hispanics and the Future of America.
Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2006, pp. 362-409;
Rubén G. Rumbaut and John R. Weeks, “Unraveling a Public Health
Enigma: Why Do Immigrants Experience Superior Perinatal Health
Outcomes?,” Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 13(B), 1996:
335-388.
28
Ramiro Martínez, Jr. and Matthew T. Lee, “On Immigration and
Crime,” in National Institute of Justice, Criminal Justice 2000: The
Nature of Crime, Vol. 1 (NCJ 182408). Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, July 2000, p. 515;
Rubén G. Rumbaut, “Assimilation and Its Discontents: Between
Rhetoric and Reality,” International Migration Review 31(4), 1997:
923-960.
29
Kristin F. Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl, “Recent Immigrants:
Unexpected Implications for Crime and Incarceration,” Industrial
and Labor Relations Review 51(4), July 1998: 654-679.
30
Kristin F. Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl, Why Are Immigrants’
Incarceration Rates So Low? Evidence on Selective Immigration, Deterrence, and Deportation (WP 2005-19). Chicago: Federal Reserve
Bank of Chicago, November 2005, p. 2.

Robert J. Sampson, Jeffrey D. Morenoff and Stephen Raudenbush,
“Social Anatomy of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Violence,”
American Journal of Public Health 95(2), February 2005: 224-232.
See also Eyal Press, “Do immigrants Make Us Safer?,” The New York
Times Magazine, December 3, 2006.
32
U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, U.S. Immigration Policy:
Restoring Credibility. Washington, DC: 1994, p. 20.
33
Ramiro Martínez, Jr., Matthew T. Lee and A. L. Nielsen, “Segmented
Assimilation, Local Context and Determinants of Drug Violence in
Miami and San Diego: Does Ethnicity and Immigration Matter?,”
International Migration Review 38(1), March 2004: 131-157;
Matthew T. Lee, Ramiro Martínez, Jr. and Richard B. Rosenfeld,
“Does Immigration Increase Homicide? Negative Evidence from
Three Border Cities,” Sociological Quarterly 42(4), September 2001:
559–580.
34
For a summary of these studies, see Ramiro Martínez, Jr. and
Matthew T. Lee, “On Immigration and Crime,” July 2000, pp.
498-501.
35
Kathleen Mullan Harris, “The Health Status and Risk Behavior of
Adolescents in Immigrant Families,” in Donald J. Hernández, ed.,
Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance.
Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences Press, 1999, pp.
286-347; Hoan N. Bui and Ornuma Thingniramol, “Immigration
and Self-Reported Delinquency: The Interplay of Immigrant
Generations, Gender, Race, and Ethnicity,” Journal of Crime and
Justice 28(2), 2005: 79-100.
36
For a summary of these reports, see Michael Tonry, “Ethnicity,
Crime, and Immigration,” in Michael Tonry, ed., Ethnicity, Crime,
and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996; Ramiro Martínez, Jr.
and Matthew T. Lee, “On Immigration and Crime,” July 2000, pp.
495-498.
37
Reports of the Immigration Commission, 61st Congress, 3rd Session.
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911, p. 168.

16

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