 Tracking Ignorance: Examining Changes in Immigrant Population Innumeracy in the United States from 2005 to 2013Daniel Herda
Migration Letters, 2019, vol. 16, issue 2, 329-339 Abstract: Citizens’ tendency to overestimate the size of immigrant populations has been the subject of several studies over the past three decades. While we have learned a great deal about the extent, causes, and potential consequences of this population innumeracy, our understanding remains static. The current letter offers the first longitudinal consideration of immigrant population size misperceptions with an analysis across a nine-year span in the U.S. This study considers: 1) whether misperceptions have changed over time; 2) how these changes compare to the growth of the actual foreign-born population size; and 3) whether these changes are related to demographic and ideological factors. Results indicate that misperceptions have grown rapidly in the U.S, far outpacing the modest, actual increases across the period. Pooled cross-sectional analyses indicate that demographic factors do not explain the growth in misperceptions. However, the overestimates of politically conservative Americans have grown increasingly extreme over time. Keywords: immigration; misperceptions; United States; longitudinal analysis; population innumeracy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mig:journl:v:16:y:2019:i:2:p:329-339 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Migration Letters is currently edited by Kittisak Jermsittiparsert More articles in Migration Letters from Migration Letters |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.