Perceptions and reality on immigration

I can understand public disagreement about the impact of immigration on the economy.  Most economic research finds that immigrants do not adversely affect native workers, but it is not hard to find studies that reach the opposite conclusion.  As a result the public sees economist A disagreeing with economist B and eyes glaze over.  

I would have thought there would be less misunderstanding about how many immigrants we have.   A recent NBER study by three Harvard economists says otherwise.  They asked native citizens in six countries to estimate what percentage of the population consisted of immigrants.  In the US the answer was 36 percent, well above the actual level of 10 percent.  

Americans are not alone in overestimating immigration levels.  British, French, Germans, Italians and Swedes were almost as far off.  

Americans also have inaccurate perceptions regarding where immigrants come from and how well they are doing economically.  Americans think 22 percent of immigrants are Muslim, well above the actual level of 10 percent.  We think 26 percent are unemployed and 35 percent live in poverty.  Think again.  The unemployment rate for immigrants is 5.5 percent and the poverty rate is 13.5 percent.  For further details see this article in Salon.