Same Platform, Different Stories: TikTok and the Battle Over Immigration Narratives
A mixed-method analysis sampled 344 highly viewed English-language videos from 5,305 immigration-related TikToks. Pro-immigration content made up 41% of the sample, while platform affordances supported both inclusive storytelling and xenophobic narratives.
Peer-reviewed publication
VerifiedPublished in Media and Communication.
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Executive summary
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Researchers collected 5,305 public TikTok videos containing immigration-related terms and hashtags with the Zeeschuimer web-crawling tool. They selected 344 English-language videos posted in 2025, each with at least 100,000 plays and a high likelihood of reaching Canadian audiences, then manually coded their stance, framing and use of TikTok affordances.
Pro-immigration portrayals accounted for 41% of the sample and frequently used practical guidance, personal stories and trending audio. Among anti-immigration videos, 47% used an economic frame, while others invoked cultural threats, nationalism and integration difficulties.
The study finds that TikTok’s mimetic and interactive features are not inherently aligned with one political position. The same mechanisms can support information seeking and belonging or amplify manipulated statistics, racist humour and AI-generated xenophobic content.
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