The discrepancy between the national Citizens perception and the reality about immigration in Portugal

Abstract

As of today,theperception of national citizens about immigration does not attain the immigrants’ real contribution in Portugal. Unfortunately, thelack of informationdisclosureenhances negative perception errorsthatlead population to blamethe wrong targets.IntheEU, there is aperception crisis where several extremist voices bet on these perception errors,based on the exaggerated and unfounded fears among the populations. Imperatively, perception errors need to be appropriately clarified with official statistics, otherwise the future of nations will be compromised.