In Finland, interactions with public authorities are increasingly being handled online. Appointments, applications and guidance are available through digital platforms that are assumed to be accessible to all. In practice, however, this is not the case. For many migrants, services remain distant – not because information is lacking, but because it is difficult to find or interpret. An additional challenge is that many migrants originate from countries where the relationship between the people and the state differs from that in Nordic countries, where people generally share a high level of trust in the public sector.
In Espoo, this contradiction is being addressed in the Trust-M project by examining services from the user’s perspective: what happens when services are not designed for an assumed “default user”, but together with those who often struggle to access them?
The project, funded by the Strategic Research Council, brings together the City of Espoo with researchers from Aalto University as well as the Universities of Helsinki, Tampere and Vaasa. Preliminary findings were presented at a joint event with the City of Espoo in late February.
In Trust-M project, solutions are not designed in isolation, but rather co-created together with residents, says Irena Bakić from the city of Espoo.
One example is workshops where participants with migrant backgrounds co-designed communication materials for new residents; developing how information about public services is shared, based on their own experiences in the City. The outcomes included postcards presenting key service information in a clear and accessible format, as well as developing new ways for the City to interact with its residents.
‘Migrants know best about their own everyday needs – which is why their involvement in service development is essential,’ says Ville-Veikko Minkkinen, interaction coordinator of the Trust-M project at Aalto University.
The workshops show that it is not only the content that matters, but also how information is presented so that it connects to people’s everyday lives. The most effective solutions are not necessarily technologically complex, but easy to find, understand and use.
‘Some information that is obvious to locals might be unknown to migrants’, says Zahra Hosseini from the University of Helsinki.
One of the project’s key findings is that there is no shortage of information about public services, rather the opposite. The problem is that there is an abundance of information that is fragmented and difficult to navigate as a whole.
Researchers compare a well-functioning system to a library. In contrast, current services resemble a fragmented publishing landscape in which different actors produce content without a shared structure. This means that users are left not only to search for information, but also to evaluate it: what is reliable, up to date and relevant to their situation. Without clear guidance, services may remain effectively out of reach.
‘Accessibility is not just about producing information, but about ensuring that people can find the information that is right for them,’ note doctoral researchers Amir Pakpour, Rūta Šerpytytė and Professor Thomas Olsson from Tampere University.
As a result, building more websites is not the answer. What is needed is reducing fragmentation, providing cohesion within the information ecosystem, and creating new ways of guiding people to the right information resource – in effect, “librarians” who can organise the information and help users navigate complex service environments.
In the future, public services are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence, for example, in translation and customer service. This creates new opportunities, but also raises questions about reliability, ethics and data protection, says Tom Bäckström, professor at Aalto University and leader of the Trust-M project.
Bäckström, whose earlier research has addressed privacy in audio technologies, emphasises that users must be able to trust that their personal data is secure and that AI-generated outputs, such as conversation summaries, are reliable.
‘Technology alone does not solve the question of trust. AI systems cannot enforce their own rules – their use requires continuous evaluation and human oversight,’ Bäckström notes.
While many migrants use general AI chatbots like ChatGPT for their daily needs, trusted AI chatbots authorised by public services seem to be in demand, Zahra Hosseini found in an interview study.
Digital public services have long been developed with a focus on efficiency: completing tasks quickly and with minimal effort and cost. According to Associate Professor Johanna Ylipulli and postdoctoral researcher Nils Ehrenberg from the University of Vaasa, this approach is too narrow to build trustworthy and inclusive services.
In the Trust-M project, services are instead viewed as care infrastructures – systems designed to support people’s everyday lives over time, rather than simply resolving individual issues as stand-alone transactions.
‘Public services should not focus only on completing single tasks, but on supporting people’s everyday lives in the long term,’ Ylipulli and Ehrenberg emphasise.
The difference is particularly visible in how the interaction is designed. When services are purely transactional, users may feel left alone. When continuity, listening, and support are present, trust can emerge.
Digital services do not exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by legislation, policy, and administrative practices. The research highlights tensions between national-level strategies and local implementation, note researchers Aaro Tupasela and Sanna Wong-Toropainen from the University of Helsinki.
The research highlights how the digital divide and vulnerability are interconnected: differences in knowledge, infrastructure, and trust can accumulate and make accessing services more difficult. As a result, digitalisation can both facilitate and hinder access to services. Factors such as language, familiarity with the system, and availability of information influence how services are experienced.
‘User control mechanisms often shift responsibility and risk from service providers to individuals. Trust in digital services requires that responsibilities and rules are clearly defined,’ Tupasela and Wong-Toropainen say.
The model developed in the project is based on collaboration: researchers, the city, organisations and residents work together to find solutions. The aim is not only more functional technology, but services that people recognise as their own.
Ultimately, the question is one of trust. It does not arise from a single digital service, but from how well the system as a whole responds to people’s needs – in ways that are understandable, accessible, and fair.
Trust in public services is built through experience. It is not a fixed state, but something that evolves depending on the situation, according to studies led by postdoctoral researcher Avanti Chajed. The study by Hosseini, Pakpour, and Olsson also indicated that trust in public services is associated with migrants' inclusion and sense of belonging.
Researchers are investigating what trustworthiness means for migrants in the digital age and how digital public services could be made more inclusive using multimodal conversational AI
With speech technologies becoming increasingly common, researchers want to make sure we don’t give away more information than we mean to.
