The place for modern technologies in the integration of migrants

The integration experience among migrants is associated with their use of digital technology to navigate complex adaptation challenges and acquire essential information. Digital tools like smartphones, social media, and online platforms assist migrants in settling into a new country by providing information and services, including those for language learning, sociocultural integration, employment, and skills development. Concurrently, host governments and societies are harnessing technological solutions to enhance the provision of official services and information for migrant populations, complementing the strategic use of digital tools by the migrants themselves. However, practical benefits of digital technology are often hindered by limited connectivity, literacy gaps, and socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural barriers.

This Policy Brief explores how migrants engage with modern technologies throughout their integration trajectories in host countries, highlighting the reasons why they may encounter digital obstacles and the instances where governments have, intentionally or unintentionally, marginalised them. This brief also examines the opportunities and limitations of existing bottom-up and top-down approaches to digitalisation in migrant integration processes, particularly in Europe, as well as offers recommendations on how digital technologies can be better tailored to migrants’ needs, thereby enabling more efficient investments in digital technologies within integration settings and generating increased opportunities for migrant agency.