Following French President Emmanuel Macron admitting that foreigners commit half of all crimes in Paris, new data now shows that in some areas, crime rates for foreigners are even worse, such as violent robberies.
On the France 2 television channel, Macron explained on Oct. 26 that: “Yes, when we look at crime in Paris, we cannot fail to see that at least half of the crime we observe come from people who are foreigners, either who are in an irregular situation or awaiting asylum.”
When contacted by French news outlet 20 Minutes, the Ministry of the Interior clarified that Macron was referring to the first six months of 2002. According to the Paris police headquarters, “48 percent of those questioned for acts of delinquency in Paris are foreigners” over this period. These foreigners include people in an irregular or regular situation on the territory, adds the ministry, which is a category a little broader than that given by Macron, who referred to only people in an irregular situation or who were awaiting asylum.
However, the Paris police headquarters also sent information on Oct. 29 that for the first six months of 2022, foreigners were vastly overrepresented in certain serious offenses. This group was responsible for 70.4 percent of violent robberies and 75.6 percent of simple thefts, according to data from the police headquarters and the ministerial statistical service for internal security.
Paris does however have a larger foreign population, featuring 15 percent of the population of foreign origin versus 8 percent of the rest of the country. Nevertheless, according to the data, 15 percent of the population was responsible for 70 percent of violent robberies.
Macron, for his part, said that he refused to make a “generalization” and “will never make an existential link between immigration and insecurity.”
Conservatives immediately mocked him for the comment, with National Rally Marine Le Pen writing on Twitter, “To be able to say almost in the same sentence, as Emmanuel Macron did, that half of the crimes in Paris are committed by foreigners and that there is no link between delinquency and immigration.”