Domestic hospitality: an IT based approach

The year 2015 forced the world to contend with touching pictures of hundred of thousands of refugees fleeing from their home countries, risking their lives in the Mediterranean sea, trying to reach safer shores. UNHCR estimates that the number of global forcibly displaced people topped nearly 60 million. The main aim of this article is to consider how an IT based solution can contribute to the global refugee crisis. The research focuses on how citizens can contribute in innovative ways, rather than traditional governmental and institutional approaches. The innovative Italian initiative, called ’Refugees Welcome Italia’ promotes domestic hospitality as a way to further integration. Among the other innovative aspects featured by this initiative, the most important is the participative nature. To reach this goal IT gives an important contribution, on the one hand helping people to communicate, on the other allowing social work practitioners to collect data and implement a tailored system.