“If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population,” says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. “If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you’re likely in one of the country’s safer cities. San Diego, Laredo, El Paso—these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they’re some of the safest places in the country.”
Via Bookforum this week, Reason magazine online explains how cities like El Paso with large immigrant communities are among the safest cities in the country. El Paso’s ranking as third safest city in the U.S. (behind Honolulu and New York) is especially remarkable considering that it is just across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, one of the most dangerous cities in North America.
Having grown up in San Diego, “America’s Finest City” and a massive border-city in its own right, I often wondered as I grew older whether the city’s so-called safety, security, hospitality and general sanitized glee were less indications of a happy populace or more symptoms of fear, acquiescence and conformity.
