site.btaBulgarians Increasingly Hostile to Migrants - Survey

Bulgarians Increasingly Hostile to Migrants - Survey

Sofia, March 30 (BTA) - A tendency of increasing hostility towards refugees in the social media was established in a survey carried out by the Bulgarian agency for media analyses, Perceptica, presented at BTA.

Almost half of the social media users are against the acceptance of refugees. The survey is based on 80,000 mentions in the mainstream and about 30,000 in the social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums) in the July-December 2015 period.

Forty-seven per cent are firmly "against" the refugees as against 25 per cent in favour and 28 per cent neutral. A tendency of an increase of negative as against positive attitudes is observed in the period under review. The users of Facebook are the most hostile towards migrants with 57 per cent critical statements, 11 positive and 32 neural. On the other hand, the highest number of positive statements (42 per cent) are observed among bloggers. The authors of blogs are the most polarized group as only 9 per cent of the analysed posts are neutral. 
   
There is considerable difference between statements of men and women in the social networks. Comments on topics, related to the country's security, prevail among women as the focus is on the problems of women and children as this applies both among the refugees and the population of the receiving countries. Men, on their part, are focused on the geopolitical situation having caused the refugee crisis and are involved in lively discussion of the rile of USA and Russia in the development of the events in Syria.
     
The drowned three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi and the debate on the establishment of hot spots in Bulgaria were the most discussed topics in the second half of 2015. The shooting of an Afghan migrant by a Bulgarian border guard and the terrorist attacks in Paris have provoked particularly negative comments.