How ICT-Mediated Infrastructures Shape Ukrainian Forced Migration and Inclusion in Poland and Czechia

Digital technologies have become a central infrastructure of contemporary forced migration. The displacement triggered by the war in Ukraine after 2022 demonstrates the pivotal role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in mediating access to information, mobility, and processes of settlement and integration in host societies. Social media platforms, messaging applications, mobile operators and digital public services not only facilitate migrants’ everyday navigation but also reshape the governance landscape, blurring boundaries between the responsibilities of the state, private actors and migrants themselves. Drawing on interviews with 40 Ukrainian forced migrants and 16 policymakers and service providers in Poland and Czechia, we show how ICTs transform forced migration across its entire trajectory—from the decision to leave, through settlement strategies, to long-term inclusion. First, ICTs influence migration decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, where platforms such as Telegram and Viber play a central role not only in the provision of real-time information about routes, borders or legal frameworks, but also in establishing new mechanisms of trust essential for making decisions under risk. Access to digital networks, smartphones and digital literacy thus becomes a prerequisite for informed and timely departure. Second, ICTs enable private actors—particularly mobile operators—to emerge as critical intermediaries. While the supportive measures introduced by telecom providers in Poland and Czechia in 2022 were widely praised, less attention has been paid to the fact that these companies effectively became the first layer of infrastructure enabling communication, access to information and links to support systems. Their actions thus had direct consequences for the uneven distribution of information and assistance. Third, ICTs are increasingly embedded in state migration management and integration governance. Digital registration portals, e-government services, and online applications for temporary protection, healthcare or schooling accelerate access to rights. Yet they simultaneously generate new forms of selectivity: access to public services becomes conditional on digital competence, internet connectivity, and the ability to navigate rapidly shifting systems. Finally, we demonstrate that digitally mediated integration is both effective and fragile. While ICTs provide accelerated pathways to employment, housing and community support, they also risk reinforcing ethnically homogenous digital bubbles, reducing contact with the host society and shifting integration responsibilities onto migrants themselves. We conclude that ICTs are not neutral tools; they redistribute power, agency and inequality, shaping who can decide, move, access rights and ultimately integrate. Despite their centrality, the governance implications of digital infrastructures—particularly the role of private actors and the stratifying effects of digital access—remain significantly understudied within migration research.