Asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and keeping the peace

About 600 migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa last Saturday to protest their treatment.They forced open the gates at the facility and marched toward the center of the island ….and what did they do? Rioted? Took over the town? Raped and pillaged?

They staged a peaceful protest, which locals joined in (!) and then went back to the camp -without coercion.

This reminds me of the break out from the detention camp at Woomera in outback South Australia in June 2000 when about the same number of detainees, when they reached the centre of the town, staged a non-violent protest.

The report from Italy contrasts with reports from France which claim that more than 1,000 cars were torched on New Year by what Time Magazine names as residents of ‘unemployment-racked, racially tense banlieues’. The blogger at Atlas Shrugs is somewhat less careful of ethnic stereotyping and headlines her post with Muslims torch 1,100+ cars.

I am not quite sure what to make of all this.

In a recent posting I reported that  immigrants of all kinds, including the illegal, are less likely to be involved in crime than others. Even when ‘illegals’ forcibly break out of detention centres they seem to have done so as non-violently as possible. Is France the exception to the rule?

Clear up crime: make everyone migrate!

The excellent blog Immigration Impact (see link on this page) in a recent post ‘Separating fact from fiction about immigrants and crime‘, said this:

“Numerous national and state-level studies over the past hundred years have found immigrants are less likely than the native-born to commit crimes or be in prison, and high rates of immigration are not associated with higher crime rates.  Harsh immigration policies are not effective in fighting crime because the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

The blog led me to this page that states:

“For every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are the least educated’. The facts are the same in Australia.

Immigration Impact reports on the scurrilous piece of reporting in the Washington Post Attitudes Shift on Illegal Residents: Some Link Crime In Montgomery To Immigration,which called to mind the dreadful piece in the Adelaide Advertiser a couple of weeks ago. What can we do to reduce fear of crime?

Base action on facts and campaign for everyone to migrate – anywhere. Then crime rates would drop.