Exploring the Digital Public Engagement: Thematic and Sentiment Analysis of Tweets about the Afghanistan Refugee Crisis

This chapter examines online Twitter community engagements and sentiments towards Afghan refugees following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Using Netlytic, 32,213 tweets containing keywords such as “Afghan refugees,” “Afghanrefugees,” and “Afghanistan crisis” were collected from October 4–18, 2021. Analytical tools like Leximancer, SentiStrength, and Voyant were employed, guided by social identity theory, to explore opinions on immigration. Thematic and sentiment analysis revealed five key themes: Afghan Refugees, Refugee, Crisis, Evacuees, and Housing. Findings indicate a predominantly negative attitude towards Afghan refugees, consistent with the in-group/out-group dynamics explained by social identity theory.