Experientia

Immigrant value exchange

Experientia carried out ethnographic research for Vodafone in Turin and Madrid, looking at value exchange practices and technology usage of immigrants in cities with high percentages of immigration, with an aim of identifying opportunity areas for mobile services to support their communication practices and the integration of immigrant communities into adopted countries.

We conducted interviews and on-site observation within the five largest immigrant communities in each city, to explore their needs upon arrival, as well as the different information and services available. The focus was on the services and technology used to carry out value exchanges and communication both internally, and with contacts in other countries.

Contextual interviews and shadowing of participants in each city over a period of two weeks was used to inform insights to allow Vodafone to conceptualise mobile services to support immigrant lifestyles and integration into local communities.

Understanding
The project involved a number of phases that contributed to building an understanding of the behaviours and needs of immigrants, with an emphasis on usage of mobile technology and value exchange.

Phase one began with desk research and informal interviews with cultural mediators. These were people who are active within immigrant communities, but have been in their adopted city long enough to be able to offer more informed insights on the way immigrant communities within the cities are organised with respect to their home countries.

Phase two involved contextual observations of places where immigrants usually gather for social activities, semi-structured interviews with immigrants from the five most represented nationalities in Turin and Madrid, and observation of mobile phone use during interviews.

The final phase of the project was an analysis of the findings, and the identification of a number of opportunity areas for Vodafone in relation to immigrant communities. This included a visual map of Vodafone’s immigrant research across Europe and also Egypt, providing an integrated contextual overview of the individual initiatives that Vodafone’s national offices have carried out in the last five years.

Final deliverables
The secondary and primary research results were presented together with the findings. These findings inspired possible new services and opportunity areas for mobile services aimed at immigrant communities. The visual mapping of international immigrant research could be used by Vodafone to create a more synthesised strategy and approach to this market in the future.