Social media and public discourse on immigration
This project investigates the ways in which social media influences public discourse and opinion on immigration in wealthy democracies with a focus on Canada. Drawing on insights from migration studies and political science, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how social media users engage with traditional media narratives of immigration and immigrant populations, as well as the impact impact that social media has on public opinion.
- What is the role of social media in reproducing or altering the traditional media’s coverage of immigration?
- What is the role of social media in creating a polarized public discourse on immigration?
This project addresses two emerging debates within migration studies and political science about the relationships between traditional media, social media and public discourse on immigration.
First, there has been a long-standing debate amongst migration scholars that traditional media disproportionately cover immigration negatively. More recent studies extend this negative coverage argument tosocial media, claiming it is reinforcing news outlets’ negative portrayal of immigration policies and immigrant populations Since both are known to influence public opinion it is critical that we examine these phenomena in depth.
Second, and related to the first debate above, is whether or not people who spend significant time on social media platforms become more partisan and aggressive when it comes to discussing immigration. Recent studies suggest that social media platforms weaken social norms and erase non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, making and encouraging users to behave more aggressively toward one another. Countless studies have shown that immigration has been a polarizing issue for a long time in many places. The question here is, to what extent do social media environments polarize the way people communicate about important issues like immigration (referred to as the polarized environment debate)?
Canada is an important case to look at when considering what shapes public opinion on immigration. The country has a large immigrant population, immigration policy is a salient issue in the media and politics, and there is growing concern that the issue will be more divisive in the future. The US is similar to Canada in terms of relative size of the immigrant population and public concern about policy, but is believed to be a lot more polarized on immigration.
This project will compare and contrast Canadian and American social media discourse and public opinion to better understand whether social media platforms themselves encourage polarization on immigration and negative attitudes toward immigrants.
This project will involve the use of quantitative text analysis of social media discourse (primarily Twitter/X posts) from users during 2023. Topic modelling and sentiment analysis will be used to identify the extent to which social media posts amplify negative discussions of immigration among social media users from each country. This observational analysis will help answer the first research question. To answer the second, analysis of social media posts will be coupled with original experiments involving Canadian and American adults.
First delivery of articles and presentations will take place in 2024.
April 2026
Boyoon Lee (Vanderbilt University)
CERC Migration
immigration; social media; Canada