The use of machine translation as a multilingual communication strategy

Abstract This exploratory study investigates the use of online translation tools by Ukrainian war refugees in Czechia as a key multilingual communication strategy during their initial months of displacement, particularly in the absence of interpreters. The study aims to identify conceptual lenses that can guide further research on this strategy within translation studies. We explore the constitutive factors shaping communication mediated by machine translation (MT), the perceived benefits and drawbacks of MT use, and the contexts in which MT is deliberately avoided. Our findings suggest that MT use by displaced persons can be examined through concepts such as translational agency, power, national identity, and translational assimilation and accommodation. Practical implications include integrating MT tools into refugee language education, organizing MT literacy trainings for displaced persons and aid providers, and developing guidelines supporting multilingual communication in migration crises as part of state translation policy.