Social Media and Integration: Offline and Online Perceptions of Poles’ Attitudes Among Ukrainian Migrants

This paper examines how Ukrainian migrants in Poland assess Poles’ attitudes toward them in two interconnected contexts: offline everyday encounters and social media interactions. Drawing on digital migration studies (Candidatu et al., 2019; Leurs & Smets, 2018; Smets et al., 2020) and relational integration theory (Anderson, 2010; Klarenbeek, 2021), it investigates how experiences of recognition, acceptance, and equality are shaped across physical and digital environments. The analysis compares pre-war economic migrants with migrants who arrived in Poland after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The study also incorporates migrants’ evaluations of social media’s role in integration, conceptualized as a relational condition in which migrants and non-migrants engage as social equals, with equal access to public resources and opportunities provided by the state and society. The empirical findings are based on survey data collected from 1,019 respondents, divided into two groups according to migration timing: arrivals before 24 February 2022 and arrivals after that date. This research design enables an examination of how the broader geopolitical context and the timing of migration shape perceptions of acceptance and exclusion in the host society. The results show that both groups report higher perceived acceptance in offline interactions, while online encounters are more frequently described as negative or hostile. Migrants who arrived after the 2022 invasion report positive perceptions of Poles’ attitudes more often than pre-war migrants, plausibly reflecting the widespread public solidarity and institutional support mobilized in Poland during the initial phase of the war. Pre-war migrants, by contrast, express more stable perceptions of general acceptance, which may be associated with longer residence, deeper relational embedding, and stronger local social networks. From a theoretical perspective, the study corroborates core assumptions of relational integration theory, confirming that integration should not be interpreted solely as cultural adaptation but as a dynamic negotiation of legitimacy, status, and mutual recognition within everyday social relations. The analysis demonstrates that recognition operates through distinct social and socio-technical logics in offline and online spheres. Offline interactions, often structured around workplace cooperation and routine interdependence, are perceived as more conducive to building relational trust and mutual status equality. Online environments, shaped by visibility, affective polarization, and algorithmic amplification, are more frequently interpreted as reinforcing symbolic distance and relational exclusion. References: Anderson, E. (2010). The Imperative of Integration. Princeton University Press. Candidatu, L., Leurs, K., & Ponzanesi, S. (2019). Digital Diasporas: Beyond the Buzzword. In J. Retis & R. Tsagarousianou (Eds.), The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture (pp. 31–47). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119236771.ch3 Klarenbeek, L. (2021). Reconceptualising ‘integration as a two-way process.’ Migration Studies, 9(3), 902–921. https://doi.org/10.1093/MIGRATION/MNZ033 Leurs, K., & Smets, K. (2018). Five Questions for Digital Migration Studies: Learning From Digital Connectivity and Forced Migration In(to) Europe. Social Media and Society, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118764425 Smets, K., Leurs, K., Georgiou, M., Witteborn, S., & Gajjala, R. (2020). The SAGE Handbook of Media and Migration. The SAGE Handbook of Media and Migration. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526476982