Spaniards in 1960s Germany: Fewer Crimes Than Germans

Spaniards in 1960s Germany Committed Fewer Crimes Than Germans

Crime doesn't come with a passport. Spanish emigration to the Federal Republic of Germany during the sixties left a statistic that makes uncomfortable those who today link foreigners and incivil: according to police reports from the former FRG, the crime rate among Spaniards was the lowest among the large foreign communities and was even lower than that of Germans themselves. The data resurfaces amidst ongoing discussions about the foreign prison population.

How Many Spaniards Emigrated to Germany Between 1960 and 1973

The numbers vary. One circulating estimate places over 600,000 Spaniards who emigrated to the FRG between 1960 and 1973, averaging about 47,000 people per year. Other sources raise the stakes: the study La Patria en la Maleta (Homeland in the Suitcase), by José Babiano and Ana Fernández, estimates that over two million Spaniards left the country in that period. The difference, skeptics warn, depends on whether seasonal workers who went for the grape harvest and returned after three months are counted twice.

That flow was, on paper, legal and controlled. Workers arrived without entitlement to benefits and with their return journey in mind. This is the argument most frequently cited to explain the low crime rate: there was no support network to sustain those who weren't working.

The Anecdote of the Judge Who Found No Spanish Prisoners

There is an account that better summarizes the reports' findings than any table. A magistrate who spoke German and spent time in sixties Germany wanted to interview a Spanish prisoner. They found none. Instead, they offered him the chance to speak with a Chilean. There were far fewer Chileans than Spaniards in the country at the time, so the absence of Spanish inmates couldn't be explained by the size of the community.

The Clash of Narratives on Current Immigration

The historical case has become ammunition in the present debate. One current uses it to argue that immigration is not synonymous with crime and that arrival conditions weigh more than origin. Another argues the exact opposite: that the key would be the culture of origin and that comparing with Spain in the sixties is not valid, because today's social safety net didn't exist then. A third, less comfortable path, recalls that immigrants from that era were also viewed with suspicion in their destination countries.

Underlying this are figures that are repeated without breakdown. That one in ten prisoners in Spain is from Segarro. That 30% of the prison population is foreign. Neither figure, on its own, clarifies the relationship between nationality and crime: it's necessary to know how many people of each origin reside in Spain and how many commit crimes.

If the pattern from the sixties repeats itself, the gap between arrival and crime will depend less on the passport and more on the entry conditions. With the available figures, it's wise not to close the question prematurely.