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.

Spring 2007

Because 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.

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		The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation by Rubén G. Rumbaut, Ph.D. and Walter A. Ewing, Ph.D. 20 pages - 897 KB - Adobe PDF [ Download The Full Document ]