CLEAN Seminar - Juan Vargas (Collegio Carlo Alberto)

The next CLEAN seminar will take place on Monday, December 16th 2024 from 4-5PM CET in Room 5-E4-SR04 of the Roentgen building.

Juan Vargas (Collegio Carlo Alberto) will be presenting the paper, "How migrants bear the burden of crime and bias: Evidence from the Venezuelan migration to Colombia"

(with Santiago Tobón and Martín Vanegas-Arias)

Abstract

The literature on the effects of migration on crime has primarily focused on South-North migration. Exploiting the recent Venezuelan migration wave that disproportionately affected Colombia, this paper examines the impact of South-South migration on crime and law enforcement outcomes. Leveraging the predicted distribution of Venezuelan migrants across Colombian municipalities, we find that increased migration causes a sharp surge in violent crimes against migrants. These results are robust to using either a shift-share or a difference-in-differences identification strategy. Our analysis of arrest data further reveals an increase in migrant detentions only. Notably, a significant proportion of detained migrants are released shortly after apprehension, suggesting insufficient evidence and a potential bias in law enforcement practices. Our findings highlight a troubling pattern of “double victimization” against migrants.