Misperceptions of immigrant flows and their associations with anti-immigrant attitudes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research has documented that misperceptions about the size and characteristics of immigrant populations are associated with anti-immigration attitudes. In the United States, immigration from Asia began to outpace immigration from Latin America starting in 2010, but public discourse about immigration remains focused on the latter. This study seeks to understand to what extent the public misperceives not just the sizes of immigrant populations, but the relative flows of subgroups. I further ask whether misperceptions of immigration flows can be corrected, and whether these misperceptions – and corrected perceptions – affect beliefs about immigration’s impacts and policy attitudes. I address these questions using a nationally-representative survey experiment, in which participants read accurate information about current immigration patterns. Findings reveal that while this information raised the overall accuracy of respondents’ perceptions of the share of immigrants coming from Latin America versus from Asia, it did not change their perceptions of immigration’s impacts, nor did it alter policy attitudes. Changing attitudes by addressing common misperceptions likely requires more targeted approaches.