Weaving the Fabric Between Newcomers and Locals

Marcotte, John; Ebeling, Gillian; Geary, Michael; Lin, Emily

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Weaving the Fabric Between Newcomers and Locals

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Germany has accepted over one million displaced people since 2015, becoming one of the top countries in the world to do so. Germany has also had an extensive history of immigration, dating back to 1685 with the Edict of Potsdam, allowing French refugees to settle in Berlin. Since then, Germany has continued to improve and add to its immigration policies to help newcomers to the country. Although there are policies that help newcomers, there are also barriers that prevent them from integrating such as discrimination, trauma, and xenophobia. Therefore, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) are relied on to fill gaps in policy, helping to integrate these newcomers in Germany. Start with a Friend (SwaF) is one of these NGO’s, using its Tandem matching program to build social networks for newcomers among other programs. As of 2022, SwaF has created over 7,800 Tandem pairs. However, its database was built in 2015, when the organization was first founded, and cannot keep up with SwaF’s growing demands as it expands to locations across Germany and Austria. Our team created a prototype of a new database using the Agile framework to iterate based on feedback of our prototype. We worked closely with our sponsor to gain feedback and created an evaluation form to be completed by SwaF employees who create matches after interacting with our prototype. Before creating this prototype, however, we conducted a literature review, collected first-hand accounts of migration, and observed SwaF to learn about SwaF’s operations through the lens of Germany’s history of migration. This was essential to develop solutions that work for both the participants of the program and SwaF’s employees. We then evaluated the current database and determined necessary improvements through workshops that consisted of actual users of the database. This allowed us to create a successful prototype, tailored to the needs of the organization, and helping SwaF in their goal to have a new, improved, and more efficient database. By aiding SwaF’s Tandem matching process, our project will contribute to the overall humanistic effort to integrate newcomers in Germany.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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