Letters: SC tweeters support Syrian resettlement

After the Paris terrorist attacks in November, Gov. Nikki Haley joined leaders in 30 other states in objecting to letting Syrian refugees settle in their states. But even as a Bloomberg poll showed that most Americans oppose a resettlement effort, I kept seeing social media posts from South Caroilnians in support of the refugees. When I systematically collected and analyzed Twitter data, I discovered that I wasn’t imagining the trend: S.C. opinions were in fact positive.

I analyzed 7,897 tweets containing the words “refugees” and “Syrian refugees” and 1,114 tweets containing the hashtaghs “#RefugeesWelcome” and “#RefugeesNotWelcome” between Nov. 17 and 25. I used a common technique known as sentiment analysis to determine the feeling of S.C. tweets.

I found that 53 percent of S.C. tweets containing “refugees” and 58 percent of S.C. tweets containing “Syrian refugees” were positive. There were more positive than negative tweets associated with “refugees” in 38 counties, and more positive than negative tweets with “Syrian refugees” in 31 counties. Abbeville, Pickens and Union had the most positive feelings, and Charleston and Horry had the most negative feelings.

Moreover, 89 percent of Twitter users posted #RefugeesWelcome, while only 11 percent posted #RefugeesNotWelcome in their tweets. Richland County was among those with a high number of tweets containing #RefugeesWelcome.

A few days ago, Texas stopped the legal effort to block Syrian refugees; at least based on the opinions on Twitter, Gov. Haley and the Legislature might want to do the same.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Letters: SC tweeters support Syrian resettlement."