Access to information and communication barriers in migrant integration processes: evidence from a qualitative study in Poland
Year: 2026
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Based on twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted at an integration centre for foreigners in Zielona Góra, Poland, the article analyses how access to information and communication barriers shape the early stages of migrant integration. It argues that integration depends not only on available services, rights and opportunities, but also on migrants' ability to know about, understan d and use them. Arriving in a new country therefore also means crossing an informational and communicative boundary. The research is grounded in a perspective that understands integration as a multidimensional process, involving material, social, institutional and relational dimensions (Ager & Strang, 2008). Alongside this perspective, the study adopts an informational lens: in order to navigate a new context, migrants need to understand procedures, documents, services, access channels and institutional points of reference. Studies on refugees' "information landscapes" show that migration involves entering environments made up of rules, documents, institutions and relationships that must gradually be understood (Lloyd et al., 2017). Chapter in: Francesco Peluso Cassese (ed.), Algorithmic Heartbeats: Affective Education in the Age of the Fourth Revolution, REN Press – Cares srl, 2026, pp. 238-239. ISBN 979-12-82860-00-0. Volume DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23211262. Section: Digital Affective Literacy and Citizenship.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224935787