Transient Non-Use: How People in Migration Experience Digital Disconnection

People experiencing migration endure many transitions across borders, technologies, and social systems. While HCI research often emphasizes this community’s adoption of technology, less attention has been paid to practices of technological non-use. This paper investigates how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are intentionally and unintentionally avoided, withheld, or not used during migration. Drawing on interviews with 32 people experiencing migration in the border city of El Paso, Texas, USA between February and May 2025, we identify a range of non-use experiences, including device, informational, and protective non-use. We extend the concept of non-use by situating it within the three phases of transitions: understanding, negotiating, and resolving. We show how ICT non-use shifts with time, risk, and institutional demands. Our analysis demonstrates that non-use functions both as a protective strategy and as a response to systemic exclusion, and concludes with design principles that anticipate non-use as both intentional and unintentional design conditions rather than as punitive failure.