Answering the top 6 questions people ask online about refugees
While we spend over two hours a day on social media, we shouldn’t overlook our use of search engines. The average person conducts 3 to 4 searches on Google every day, which results in 63,000 searches per second.
With a 90% market share, Google dominates the world of search engines and provides a goldmine of information about people’s deepest wishes and interrogations.
Just like marketers use Google to analyze consumer behavior, diplomats and nonprofits can use Google to advance their cause. For UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, this involves understanding what people ask online about refugees to inform our communications.
To analyze what people search online, a few tools are available. Google trends shows people’s interest in a given search term overtime and top words searched together with that term. Answer the public helps visualize commonly asked questions based on Google’s autocomplete system.
Overall, people ask six main types of questions:
1. Who are refugees?
Most people are confused about the definition of refugees, especially about the difference between refugees, asylum-seekers and economic migrants.
Recurring questions online include “What is a refugee?,” “Refugee definition,” “Are refugees migrants?,” “Are refugees and asylum-seekers the same?” and “Are refugees legal?”
So, who are refugees? Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. Refugees have an official status and are protected under international law. An asylum-seeker hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Economic migrants move not to escape violence, but mainly to find work and improve their lives.
2. Why do refugees leave?
This interrogation is at the heart of the definition of refugees. Related questions include: “Why do refugees leave their homes?,” Why do refugees flee?,” “Where do refugees come from?,” and “What refugees go through?”
So why do refugees leave? Refugees never leave their home by choice. They leave to flee war, like in Syria or South Sudan. They leave to flee gang violence, like in El Salvador or Honduras. They leave to flee persecution due to their political opinions, religion or sexual orientation.
3. Will refugees go back?
A lot of people are confused about whether refugees intend to stay in the country where they have found refuge or go back home.
Questions include: “When will refugees return,” “Will refugees be sent back home?” and “Can refugees go back?”
So, will refugees go back home? Most refugees would like to go back home — they never wanted to leave in the first place — but they cannot because the situation remains too dangerous. For millions of refugees, returning home concludes an often traumatic time in exile. Once the situation back home is safe, UNHCR can manage voluntary repatriation programs.
4. What about refugees in my home country?
People want to know about the situation of refugees in their own countries. Top questions include: “Can refugees work/vote/become citizens in my country?,” “Which refugees come to Australia?,” “When did refugees start coming to Germany?,” and “How are refugees treated in Canada?”
So, what about refugees in my home country? According to international law, refugees should have the right to go to school, work and access medical care. In some countries, refugees also have paths towards citizenship under certain conditions. But the situation of refugees varies from a host country to another. 86% of refugees live in developing countries and only about 30 countries offer resettlement places for the most vulnerable refugees. In 2021, top refugee hosting countries were Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan, Uganda and Germany.
5. What is the economic impact of refugees?
People want to know how refugee arrivals are impacting them, especially from an economic point of view.
“How do refugees help our economy?,” “How do refugees help America?,” or “How will refugees affect European economies?” are recurrent questions on Google.
So what about the economic impact of refugees? Most economists find that accepting and empowering refuges is a win-win formula. Refugees tend to engage in entrepreneurship at higher rates than natives and bring different skillsets. But they need to be allowed to access the job market. 70% of refugees live in countries with restricted right to work.
6. How can I help refugees?
Amid negative narratives about refugees, there are also good reasons for hope. Top questions includes “Why should refugees be accepted?” and “Why refugee need help?”. According to Google Trends, “help” and “welcome” feature in the top 20 words searched the most together with “refugees.”
So, how can I help refugees? There are many ways to support refugees. You can welcome refugees in your home, volunteer locally, advocate for more inclusive policies, support refugee businesses or donate to UNHCR. Here is a list of practical ways to help put together by Melissa Fleming.
What can we learn?
We should not assume that people know what we’re talking about
Most people are confused about the definition of refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers. It is important to remind people as often as possible of the root causes of displacement to make them understand both why people flee and why they often cannot return home.
People are concerned about things happening close to home
Although Canada, Australia and the US don’t host many refugees compared to other countries, people frequently ask about them. We need to make sure that people obtain geo-localized answers but also that they realize how the situation of refugees locally compares with the rest of the world.
People care
Most of the questions asked about refugees online are neutral, and some are even positive. We know that people do not search how to help refugees on a regular basis but rather in the context of specific news events that create big waves of solidarity. When people wish to help, we need to make sure that they are redirected to the right places to volunteer, donate and advocate.
