Refugees Welcome? Online Hate Speech and Sentiments in Twitter in Spain during the Reception of the Boat Aquarius

Carlos Arcila-Calderón, David Blanco-Herrero, Maximiliano Frías-Vázquez and Francisco Seoane-Pérez
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Carlos Arcila-Calderón: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
David Blanco-Herrero: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Maximiliano Frías-Vázquez: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Francisco Seoane-Pérez: Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación, University Carlos III of Madrid, 28903 Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: High-profile events can trigger expressions of hate speech online, which in turn modifies attitudes and offline behavior towards stigmatized groups. This paper addresses the first path of this process using manual and computational methods to analyze the stream of Twitter messages in Spanish around the boat Aquarius (n = 24,254) before and after the announcement of the Spanish government to welcome the boat in June 2018, a milestone for asylum seekers acceptance in the EU and an event that was highly covered by media. It was observed that most of the messages were related to a few topics and had a generally positive sentiment, although a significant part of messages expressed rejection or hate—often supported by stereotypes and lies—towards refugees and migrants and towards politicians. These expressions grew after the announcement of hosting the boat, although the general sentiment of the messages became more positive. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and methodological implications of the study, and acknowledge limitations referred to the examined timeframe and to the preliminary condition of the conclusions.

Keywords: aquarius boat; immigration; hate speech; politicians; refugees and asylum seekers; sentiment analysis; topic modelling; twitter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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