Attitudes towards Afghan refugees and immigrants in Turkey: A Twitter analysis

•Results highlight the prevalence of negative perceptions, dehumanisation of, and racism toward afghan refugees in turkey.•The most common threats from afghan refugees are perceived realistic, symbolic, demographic, security, moral, and health threats from them.•Albeit very few, there are also positive attitudes towards afghan refugees in the form of solidarity, helping and empathy.•Twitter data allows researchers to examine how afghan refugees are represented in public discourse on social media and what kind of actions against and in favour of them is called on social media.