ICT Communication Network and Social Cohesion. The Web immigration Portal

This contribution focuses on the opportunities provided by ICT to the process of social integration. We present an analysis of a public policy of information oriented towards a specific group- immigrants. The cooperation between various local authorities (Asti Province) resulted in an electronic booking procedure that eased the weight of bureaucracy and improved the quality of the service supplied to this group of people in search of regularization. The case is evaluated under different perspectives: a) the cooperative process within the different levels of bureaucracy and the role of local policy makers; b) the provision of a public service tailored towards a particular social group; c) the improvement of social cohesion by increasing tolerance locally.