[Air-L] Migrants and their use of Online Technology.

[Alexandra.HACHE at ec.europa.eu]

Dear all

Here at IPTS  we have been working on this issue for the past two years: how Immigrants and ethnic minorities are using ICT and social computing,
You can find our studies and researches at: http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/eInclusion.html <http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/eInclusion.html> 
We are finalizing the publications of all reports regarding ICT and IEM,
Any other question please contact me directly

Cheers

Alexandra



*	"Overview of Digital Support Initiatives for/by Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the EU27" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=1888> , (2008), Authors: S. Kluzer, A. Haché, and C. Codagnone. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports: EUR 23566 EN 

*	"ICT Supply and Demand in Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Communities in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2499>  (2009), Authors: D. Diminescu, A. Hepp, S. Welling, I. Maya-Jariego, and S.Yates, JRC Technical Notes: 52233 EN

*	"ICT for Integration, Social Inclusion and Economic Participation of Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: Case Studies from France" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2460>  (2009), Authors: D. Diminescu, M. Renault; S. Gangloff, MA. Picard, C. d'Iribarne, and S. Hassane. JRC Technical Notes: 51834 EN. 

*	"ICT for Integration, Social Inclusion and Economic Participation of Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: Case Studies from Spain" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2459>  (2009), Authors: I. Maya-Jariego, P. Cruz, J.L.Molina, B. Patraca and A. Tschudin. JRC Technical Notes: 51774 EN

*	  "ICT for Integration, Social Inclusion and Economic Participation of Immigrants and Ethnic   Minorities: Case Studies from Germany" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2559>  (2009), Authors: A. Hepp, S. Welling and B. Aksen. JRC Technical Notes: EUR EN 

*	 "The State of the Art of Research in the EU on the Uptake and Use of ICT by Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities" <http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2560>  (2009), Authors: M. Borkert, P. Cingolani and V. Premazzi. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports: EUR EN
	
*	  IPTS is promoter and partner of the CIP thematic network on "ICT for social               integration and cultural diversity - Bridge IT" (12.2008 - 12.2010). 

	Bridge-IT focuses on ICT contribution in three important domains for social integration and cultural diversity: early education of immigrants and lifelong learning in multicultural Europe; immigrants' labour market integration and economic participation; empowerment of civil society and social capital. The project started in December 2008 and by Summer 2009 it had collected and analyzed a first batch of about 30 good practices in the above fields. In the Fall 2009, three thematic workshops will take place to prepare and discuss Guidelines based on the lessons learnt from those and other practices and on the partners' own experience in these areas. In 2010, five national workshops will assess the feasibility of developing these and other initiatives through transnational partnerships. A final conference will present the project's results and discuss needs and options to enhance policies on ICT for social integration and cultural diversity. Download the first version of the booklet: "Inventory of good practices in Europe that promote ICT for socio-economic integration in culturally diverse contexts" <http://www.lmi.ub.es/bridgeit/Migrants_ethnic_minorities_and_ICT.pdf>  

*	"The potential of ICT in supporting informal domiciliary carers, with particular attention to the case of immigrant care-workers" (12.2008 - 06.2009) 

	Following the first exploratory study on Italy (see below), three country studies on Germany, Spain, and the UK have analyzed: the policy context and organisation of socio-health care delivery (mostly with respect to elderly and disabled people) and the role of (unpaid) carers and care workers, including those from immigration backgrounds; the overall diffusion of ICTs to deliver care at home and to support the care givers involved, and in depth a few representative initiatives of this growing trend; the attention paid to, and any specific action addressing the migrant care workers which play a varied, but increasingly important role in domiciliary care provision in these countries. Publication forthcoming.

*	"The usage of social computing by IEM: trends and implications" (12.2007 - 05.2008)

	This study was on the formation and evolution of online ethnic communities (focus on Romanians and Moroccans) in the blogosphere and social networking sites. Publication forthcoming.

*	        Next studies:

"ICTs for learning the host country's language by adult migrants in the EU" (10.2009-02.2010)   

This study represents a first step of a broader research programme on "ICTs as enablers of integration and the everyday engagement of migrants in the EU host society" being jointly developed by IPTS with DG INFSO H3.  The first research topic selected in this context is the contribution of ICTs to address the communication challenges of integration in a culturally diverse Europe, starting from the language barrier faced by many new arrivals, but often also by already established migrants. The present study will explore how ICTs can support the teaching and acquisition by adult migrants of the/a national/official language of the host society and related cultural aspects of the use context. The research will initially develop two country case studies, with the analysis of selected experiences, in the Netherlands and Sweden. Future steps in this research line will likely address the use of ICTs for informal learning of the host country language and how ICTs can help to eliminate, bypass or reduce the language barrier itself, for instance through translation, by enabling the use of icon-based and multimedia visualisations, and so on.