Europe’s Slow Right Turn: Backlash Against Open Borders, Migrant Crime, and Welfare
American mainstream media and Europe’s left manipulate statistics to support claims that illegal aliens and migrants do not increase crime and that they benefit the economy. The data tell a different story. Immigrants are disproportionately represented in arrests, convictions, prison populations, and on welfare rolls across EU countries.
In Germany, foreigners represent roughly 17% of the population but accounted for 41.8% of all criminal suspects in 2024 and approximately 39% of all convictions in 2023, a new high. In France, foreigners make up about 7.8% of the population by citizenship, yet account for 17% of all criminal suspects, more than twice their population share, rising to 40% of suspects for vehicle theft, 38% for burglary, and 31% for unarmed robbery.
In Italy, foreigners are approximately 8.9% of the population but are implicated in 28% of murders and attempted murders, 33% of assaults, and 41% of rapes, and make up 31% of the prison population as of mid-2022. In Spain, foreigners represent 13% to 14% of the population, account for 28% of criminal convictions, and make up 31% of the national prison population, rising to 49% in Catalonia. Belgium presents the most extreme disparity: foreigners are 13% of the population but constitute 43% of the prison population, with roughly 30% of those foreign inmates holding no valid residence permit.
The welfare data are equally stark. Of the 5.6 million people on welfare in Germany as of May 2024, 2.7 million — nearly half — were not German citizens. The unemployment rate among foreigners in Germany stood at over 16% in 2023 to 2024, roughly double the national average. EU-wide research identifies France, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Nordic states as places where social benefits are higher for immigrants than for natives, with dependency persisting even after controlling for age, education, and work experience.
In France, 57% of Afghan signatories to integration contracts were unemployed 18 months after signing, with only half reaching an elementary level of French. In Italy, absolute poverty among foreign families is almost six times higher than among Italian-only families. According to official Italian government statistics for the 2022 to 2023 school year, 26.4% of students with foreign citizenship experienced school delays, compared with 7.9% of Italian students, and the dropout rate for students with foreign citizenship was 40.3%, nearly three times the 13.7% rate for Italian students.