Design research for migrants and refugees’ social integration represents a valuable instance of socio-design tackling one of the most challenging problems for Western societies.
This article describes the design of Digital Companion, developed in the framework of REBUILD project under a people-centered and participatory approach, for supporting communication and access to services for migrants and refugees.
In an era increasingly interconnected, the use of ICT is crucial for the integration of migrants and refugees, especially in the democratization of knowledge for the empowerment of individuals. Lead and support the user in accessing services and reaching their needs, are the primary objectives of REBUILD Digital Companion: the ease of reading and understanding the possibility of interaction, orientation and guidance for the relevant actions in accessing services constitute the enabling conditions for empowerment, development of the self-efficacy and empowerment of migrants and refugees.
The design of the chatbot as a mediator of communication between migrants and public administration services aim to fit into a person-centered approach (Norman, Spencer, 2019), in which the digital tool is the channel for reconstructing the person’s social fabric.
Communication as a public common, especially communication between migrants and the service system is indeed useful on certain territories -health services, population registers, school system, social events etc. This is the strategic link for the reacquisition of autonomy and reconstruction of experience of the person under a new approach of connecting, enhancement and redesign of existing administration services.
Publication Details
Name of journal:
MD Journal, Semi-annual scientific Open Access Journal
Author(s):
Alessandro Pollini, Universita Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno
Alessandro Caforio, Universita Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno
Publication date: 31/12/2020
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Pages: 160-171 (Italian)
MD Journal is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal that is inspired by the ethical code of publication worked out by COPE, Committee on Publication Ethics: Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
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