The integration of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers remains a challenge for both public authorities and local communities at the national, regional, and local levels. For migrants, the lack of information and inability to use technology due to insufficient access skills and proficiency in the language of the host country may lead to limited interaction with the new community and consequently to social exclusion. One of the issues of the hyper-complexity in migrant integration can be related to a problem of communication that not only involves the migrants also the local administrators and service providers. This problem requires systemic solutions rather than simple “ad hoc” solutions. This article describes the case of the easyRights project, an ongoing Horizon 2020 project aimed at improving migrants’ access to public services to ease exercising their rights. It presents the application of a co-design learning framework for the development of hackathons that aim to improve existing services. It also promotes the collaborative design of solutions that use ICTs to overcome the bureaucratic and idiomatic barriers migrants experience in their interactions with formal procedures. The example of the four ecosystems generated in the four pilot cities of the project shows the relevance of interconnecting stakeholders in the co-design of services and the potential of exploiting the multifaceted attributes of ICTs to solve the complexity in the access to such services. The results invite reflection on the necessity of exploring the capability of technology application through user-centric approaches to offer substantial solutions to the imperative—yet intricate—challenge of migrants’ inclusion in society.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess impact of literacy on the combinations of traceability information on food packages of chilled chicken nuggets and fish fingers consumers choose. Design/methodology/approach: A discrete choice experiment, belonging to the “stated preference method” was designed to meet the purpose of this study with 512 German and Greek consumers. According to this method, the information is gathered using methods of distinct preference asking individuals face to face questions about their behaviour. Findings: The results indicate that literacy has an impact on the combinations of information consumers choose; specific information is most useful and sought by high- and low-literate consumers; and price is an important factor for the consumer choices presented in the current study, but cannot overshadow other equally important factors. Practical implications: Marketing issues are raised because of the importance and utility consumers attach to traceability systems. Originality/value: This is a novel research concerning literacy’s impact on the combinations of package information chosen by consumers in Germany and Greece in relation to the two studied chilled chicken and fish products (i.e. chilled chicken nuggets and fish fingers).

The practice of intercultural communication should be a primary goal of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) courses in tertiary education, because, through language instruction, future professionals can become aware of intercultural differences and develop strategies to deal with them, thus equipping themselves with necessary skills for effective cross-cultural communication in a globalized work environment. In this study, the intercultural awareness of first and second year undergraduate students attending an English for Business and Economics course was examined in relation to their interest in the economy and culture of other countries as well as to their preferred sources of information about current economic issues. Their preferences and perceptions regarding the intercultural elements incorporated in the methods and material used in the English course were also explored. The analysis of the Likert-type questionnaire revealed that intercultural awareness needs to be further practiced in class and led to important implications for the teaching methods and tasks used in the LSP courses.  

This paper aims to describe the context for the migrant camp in a small municipality, and it discusses the challenge of adopting the easyRights information technology (IT) to make it easier for migrants to exercise their human rights. The easyRights project “Enabling immigrants to easily know and exercise their rights” (https://www.easyrights.eu/) is an ongoing European Horizon 2020 project that addresses the challenge of migrant integration through IT-enabled solutions. This project aims to combine co-creation and intelligent language-oriented technologies to make it easier for migrants to understand and access the services to which they are entitled. The easyRights IT–enabled solutions and toolkits for the implementation of inclusion policies can facilitate the management of the integration of migrants, and improve their autonomy and inclusion. Initial interviews with two stakeholders and one migrant in the city of Kavala (in northern Greece) were conducted. Aspects of the information described in this study are intended to be utilized within the Work Package WP7 of the project, which is with regard to the communication and dissemination plan. We recommend for the easyRights IT tools to be adopted in Kavala, so as to facilitate migrants’ exercise of their human rights, and alleviate the tasks of public administrations and local authorities. Possible solutions to avoid migrant marginalization within Kavala’s municipality include adoption of the easyRights IT solutions and investigation of stakeholders’ and migrants’ use of these technology tools.