Birthplace, Migration and Crime

An historical and contemporary account of migrant crime in Australia, this book explores a range of issues from mental health and victimology to immigration policy and legal analysis, arguing that it is birthplace, not race, which impacts upon crimes committed by migrants.

"Few issues arouse more intense contemporary debate in many nations around the globe than those relating to migration policy and practice. In this excellent book Ronald Francis contributes to this debate a detailed and scholarly analysis of the links between migration and rates of offending, imprisonment, mental illness, crime victimization and associated matters. Its focus is on Australia, a nation whose modern history began with the involuntary migration of convicts and whose population continues to absorb significant numbers of voluntary migrants as well as refugees and displaced persons. The principal message which Francis conveys is, in general, positive- the foreign born tend to be more law abiding than their native born counterparts- but decisions concerning who should be allowed to migrate to a multicultural country like Australia will still become ever more challenging." - Duncan Chappell, Adjunct Professor, Sydney University Law School, Australia "Ronald Francis started to write about immigrant integration and crime more than thirty years ago. At that time, the immigration-crime link was regarded as a minor social issue in most of the immigration countries, and that was especially true in the West European countries. His long knowledge of the matter which is particularly relevant today, when immigrant crime is high on the political agenda in all the Western countries covers not only the specific immigration-crime link but also other momentous issues revolving around it, such as immigration policies, immigration and terrorism, asylum seekers, legal aspects, and human rights." - Luigi Maria Solivetti, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy "A thought provoking book reflecting deep thinking about thorny contemporary issues relating to migration. It traverses diverse materials and distills decades of scholarship. It is commended to all those studying, researching or making policy in the migration field". - Patrick Keyzer, Bond University, Australia "...The book is a timely reminder of the importance of acknowledging the social harm against migrants and the side-effects of criminal justice interventions... Taken together, the book reflects Francis's longstanding interest in and personal stance on migration and its relation to crime. Much of a reader's response to the book probably depends on one's intellectual position on debates such as 'the gene pool,' fertility control, the 'delinquent generations hypothesis,' ethnicity and crime as a social and political construct, and in relation to the controversial work of Lombroso and positivist criminology. Birthplace, Migration and Crime will no doubt spark much interest and intense debate in the Australian context and beyond." - Maggy Lee, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 24(1)

Ronald D. Francis is Professor Emeritus at the College of Law and Justice, Victoria University, Australia. He has published widely and this book expands upon his earlier work Migrant Crime in Australia.