Mobile Assistance for Immigrants to Foster Integration in the Hosting Society

Immigrants -especially short-term immigrants- face a variety of barriers and difficulties to fully integrate and participate in the host society. Low educational attainment, cultural differences, difficulties with the host country´s language, reduced social networks and feelings of distrust and non-belonging, among several other factors, can lead immigrants to social exclusion and to unawareness of local services, rights and duties. The MASELTOV system consists of set of mobile services which enable immigrants to communicate between them and make social networking; to connect with volunteers, who provide information on a variety of topics, guidance and practical assistance when needed; to learn the host country´s language and culture; and to easily move within their environment. This system has been developed in order to support and foster the early integration and participation of immigrants in the host society by the means of mobile technologies. In this study, Turkish (living in Graz, Austria -AT-), Latin American and Arabic (living in London, United Kingdom -UK-) immigrant participants, tested the system from end-October 2014 to end-December 2014. During and after the trial phase, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered in order to determine the system´s usage by participants and the user experience (reported satisfaction, privacy concerns and trust towards the system, and perceived usability) as well as to identify differences in usage between cultural groups. In this thesis I present the methodological approach and results obtained from the field evaluation phase. Towards the end, the discussion involves the potentials of the MASELTOV system to reach current European indicators of immigrant integration and the critic to the method and limitations of the study.