Rethinking Inclusion in the Digital Age: The Role of ICTs in Migrant Integration

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are increasingly shaping migrant integration. Social media platforms, messaging applications, language-learning tools, and e-services can lower informational barriers, sustain support networks, and foster participation in social, cultural, and civic life. At the same time, these environments may reinforce social boundaries, strengthen mechanisms of control, and deepen digital inequalities. Research highlights the ambivalence of digitally mediated inclusion: the same platforms that enable settlement and connection can also generate exclusion through algorithmic sorting, culturally insulated spaces, or exposure to polarised and hostile content (Alencar et al., 2025; Kramer, 2021; Nasuto & Rowe, 2024; Nedelcu & Soysüren, 2022). The panel invites theoretical and empirical contributions examining how and under what conditions ICTs shape migrant integration. Particularly welcome are papers addressing four key gaps in current research. • First, there is no consensus on whether and when ICTs foster integration. While online migrant communities may facilitate socialisation, reduce emotional costs of settlement, and strengthen bicultural competences, strong digital ties to the country of origin can also coincide with discrimination, weaker adaptation, or limited engagement in host societies. These divergent findings underline the contextual nature of ICT effects, shaped by legal status, migration trajectories, and platform architectures. • Second, integration practices unfold in online and offline spheres that are analytically distinct but empirically intertwined. Their interconnections remain underexplored, despite their strong influence on integration outcomes. Digital networks may translate into participation in local institutions and civic mobilisation or, conversely, reinforce social isolation. • Third, ICTs should be viewed as tools and infrastructures of integration policy. Reflection is needed on how e-government services, information platforms, and language applications have become embedded in integration governance, how they shape access to rights and opportunities, and what risks they entail, such as digital exclusion, algorithmic selectivity, and surveillance. • Finally, methodological challenges persist. The field still relies heavily on online surveys and content analyses detached from migrants’ lived contexts. Mixed and innovative designs are encouraged, including interviews reconstructing online and offline trajectories, participatory research, and comparative approaches, alongside rigorous quantitative studies. Attention to ethics, data access, and fast-changing digital environments remains crucial. Key questions include: • How, and under what contextual conditions, can ICTs foster or hinder migrants’ social, cultural, and civic integration, and how do these effects vary across contexts? • How do online and offline practices and relationships intersect, reinforce, or undermine integration processes? • To what extent should digital tools and technologically mediated practices be recognised, supported, or institutionalised within integration policies and public service provision? • Which methodological approaches best capture the complex impact of ICTs on integration, and how can researchers address challenges related to data access, ethics, and evolving digital infrastructures?

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