Immigration and security: disturbing statistics

In a recent cautious but ultimately explicit comment, the former French magistrate Philippe Bilger provided evidence: “The responsibility lies with instigators of foreign origin, Maghreb or African.”

French MP Aurélien Taché on the other hand is worried about the concept of “savages” used in France, which “implicitly links the rise in violence to that of immigration”. Undeniably, these two opposing visions, validated by the statistical reality and the testimonies of police officers and victims, are not being discussed in mainstream media.

In December 2018, two thirds of French voters thought that immigration had a negative effect on security, according to an IFOP survey. Sadly, crime figures confirm the rising feeling of insecurity.

Between 2013 and 2014, nearly 24 percent of convictions for theft and 14 percent of those accused for violence against persons holding public authority were of foreign nationality, which, however, only represented 7,4 percent of the French population.

An upward trend, confirmed by the “CVS” victimization survey (living and safety environment) which, until 2014, recorded the nationality of those implicated in crimes and offenses. In 2013, 20,2 percent had a foreign nationality, whereas they were only 15,7 percent four years earlier.

Already, in 2006, the Minister for Tourism, Léon Bertrand, was discussing the issue, which, years later, thanks to deconfinement, resurfaced: “We say that we should not always associate insecurity with immigration, but, for my part, I do, because when people cross the river and cannot find the means to live, they start by petty theft and pilfering, because you have to eat, and that’s how they become delinquents.”

In Germany the majority of the suspects in so-called riots in North Rhine-Westphalia have foreign roots. This emerged from the answer from the Ministry of the Interior to a request from the AfD member of the Landtag, Markus Wagner. Accordingly, 55,6 percent of the suspects do not have German citizenship. In addition, according to the paper, many of the accused with a German passport have a name that suggests a migration background. Overall, 74,5 percent of the suspects are foreigners or Germans with foreign first names such as Ali, Hassan and Mohamed.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, a riot is “a police situation that is caused by or from an aggressively acting group of people in which the number of people, their role or the status of individual people cannot be determined immediately at the first intervention”.

On June 17 there was such a riot in Cologne when, during a traffic control, the passenger in the arrested vehicle suddenly hit a policeman in the face, so that he had to be treated medically. Around 150 onlookers, some of whom were aggressive, immediately gathered at the scene of the incident, temporarily preventing the injured policeman from being treated and disrupting the police operation. Only massive support forces were able to bring the situation under control.

According to the Interior Ministry, 87 Germans and 109 foreigners were among the 196 suspects in the first half of 2020. Among the foreigners, Turks made up the largest group with 20 accused, followed by Syrians (16). Many of the Germans mentioned have foreign roots. In at least 37 cases, the suspects have foreign names.

Wagner blamed migration and integration policy for the crime of foreigners. “Three quarters of the suspects are foreigners or have a migration background. The connection to the failed migration and integration policy of the old parties is therefore unmistakable. Nevertheless, the causes, the lack of border protection, the failure to deport and the refusal to integrate are not addressed.”