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Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 11:2 (2023) ► pp.256–278

“Not all motherfuckers are MENA, but most MENA are motherfuckers”

Hate speech on Twitter against unaccompanied foreign minors

ORCID logo | University of Seville , Spain
ORCID logo | University of Seville , Spain
ORCID logo | University of Seville , Spain
ORCID logo | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Spain

The number of unaccompanied foreign minors (Menor Extranjero No Acompañado, MENA) in Spain has risen, which has led to them being the subject of discriminatory language and negative stereotyping on Twitter. This study analyses the characteristics of hate speech against MENA on the social platform Twitter and seeks to identify its triggers. A quantitative analysis using text mining and text analytics was performed on 10,776 tweets mentioning MENA published from January 2018 to March 2021. The study concluded that hate speech was built around the terms criminal, rape and steal, and was characterized by use of language that stripped these minors of the features usually attributed to children, a process which can be described as adultification. Similarly, the analysis revealed that the main trigger of hate speech was the way in which the media reported violent crimes attributed to MENA, displaying what was perceived as positive bias towards their integration.

Keywords: social network analysis, prejudices, hate speech, immigrants, adolescents
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in the current migration context
    • 1.2Twitter and hate speech
    • 1.3The current study
  • 2.Data and method
    • 2.1Data collection and selection criteria
    • 2.2Framework
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results and analysis
    • 3.1 MENA representation on Twitter Spain
    • 3.2Anti-MENA hate speech on Twitter in Spain
    • 3.3Triggers of anti-MENA hate speech on Twitter in Spain
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00083.gom
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