Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the Evaluation of ICT Tools for and with Migrants

Abstract

As the number of migrants arriving in Europe increases, host societies face the challenge of supporting their smooth integration, respecting their needs and recognizing their competencies. A key element for their new life is their integration in the labour market. This paper presents a platform which offers a set of tools that has been developed to support migrants to find their way into the labour market in EU countries. This set includes tools for skill assessment, artificial intelligence tools providing recommendations for jobs that match their personal skills and needs, tools for suggesting training paths and options to empower their candidacy, and easy-to-use tools for creating their CV/portfolio. We focus on the evaluation of this platform in real life settings in two countries (Greece and Spain), which is part of our co-creation approach. The results are very promising and show the satisfaction of the migrants. Additionally, they provide valuable insights for both those that develop such tools and those that can use them in their work/activities with the migrants (such as the non-governmental organisations and host authorities).

Innovative ICT Based Solutions and (Im)migrants Integration

“…In this special issue, we adopted two conceptual lenses to select the articles that are included in it. The first one is socio-technical innovations based on migrants' needs that can be achieved through co-design and co-creation, especially by addressing the identification of societal needs and opening debates around them (Leligou et al 2021). This approach fundamentally changes the relationships, positions, and rules between and among different involved actors and fosters an open process of participation, exchange, and collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, including end-users.…”