Sentiment towards Migration during COVID-19: What Twitter Data Can Tell Us

Original Language
English
ISBN
978-92-9268-139-5
ISBN (PDF)
978-92-9268-002-2
Number of Pages
38
Reference Number
PUB2021/016/EL
Year of Publication
2021

Sentiment towards Migration during COVID-19: What Twitter Data Can Tell Us

This report discusses the essential findings and learnings from a collaborative research project with the University of Liverpool, investigating the use of Twitter data to track immigration sentiment during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the report will (a) demonstrate how immigrants have experienced acts of discrimination and racism in five countries (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Germany); (b) determine to what extent (anti-)immigration sentiment has shifted in reaction to increasing geographical spreads and fatality rates of COVID-19; and (c) assess how acts of discrimination and racism towards immigrants during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic vary by country.

  • Executive summary
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Harnessing twitter data for measuring public sentiment
  • towards migration
  • Migration-related public sentiment and trending topics on twitter
  • Implications for policy and areas of future work
  • References
  • Appendices