Blockchain for Trustful Collaborations between Immigrants and Governments

TL;DR

This paper proposes a blockchain-based system to enhance trust and collaboration between immigrants and their governments, focusing on Mexican immigrants in the US to improve rural communities.

Contribution

It introduces a blockchain system that provides transparent workflows and control mechanisms to facilitate trustful collaborations between immigrants and their governments.

Findings

Clear workflows increase trust among immigrants and governments.

Blockchain enhances transparency and control in financial transactions.

System design implications for future trust-building tools.

Abstract

Immigrants usually are pro-social towards their hometowns and try to improve them. However, the lack of trust in their government can drive immigrants to work individually. As a result, their pro-social activities are usually limited in impact and scope. This paper studies the interface factors that ease collaborations between immigrants and their home governments. We specifically focus on Mexican immigrants in the US who want to improve their rural communities. We identify that for Mexican immigrants having clear workflows of how their money flows and a sense of control over this workflow is important for collaborating with their government. Based on these findings, we create a blockchain based system for building trust between governments and immigrants. We finish by discussing design implications of our work and future directions.