Cited by 100Migration, Refugees, and IntegrationSocial and Intergroup PsychologyPopulism, Right-Wing Movements

Perceptions and misperceptions: actual size, perceived size and opposition to immigration in European societies

Gorodzeisky, Anastasia, Semyonov, Moshe·2020·Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Abstract

Anastasia Gorodzeiskya* & Moshe Semyonovaa Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel CONTACT Anastasia Gorodzeisky anastasiag@tau.ac.il ABSTRACTThe present paper contributes to the literature on the formation of attitudes and public views toward out-group populations by focusing on the relations between actual versus perceived and misperceived size of immigrant population (as indicators of competitive threat) and attitudes toward immigration. The analysis is conducted in the context of 17 European societies. The data for the analysis were obtained from the 2014 European Social Survey (ESS). The main findings lead to the conclusion that misperceptions of the size of immigrant population play a more important role than factual reality in shaping public views and attitudes toward immigration. Although perceived size is not totally detached from actual size, the discrepancy between actual and perceived size is found to be a more powerful predictor of opposition to immigration than actual size. The more inflated is the misperception the more pronounced is opposition to immigration. The impact of misperceptions, when measured as a discrepancy or a ratio, on anti-immigrant attitudes is more pronounced in countries with, proportionally, a large foreign-born population. The meaning of the findings and the relevance of misperceptions and cognitive maps in shaping public views are discussed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/1369183x.2018.1550158

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • It is the perceived size of immigrant populations, rather than their actual numbers, that may drive these effects.

    “Strabac (2011) provides evidence that it is the perceived size of immigrant populations, rather than their actual numbers, that may drive these effects (see also Gorodzeisky & Semyonov 2020, Pottie-Sherman & Wilkes 2017).”

    From Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Immigrants (2021) · cites this paper as Gorodzeisky & Semyonov 2020

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gorodzeisky, A., & Semyonov, M.
Affiliations
Tel Aviv University (IL)
Corresponding author
Gorodzeisky, Anastasia
Venue
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Published
2019-02-22
Volume
46
Issue
3
Pages
612-630
ISSN
  • 1369-183X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-9451
OpenAlex
W2917645445
Cited by
100
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7
FWCI
24.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Keywords
immigration attitudes, anti-immigrant sentiment, competitive threats, outgroup perception, cognitive maps, public opinion, European society, foreign-born population

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review