Internship/volunteer work with refugees and migrants

miffle · Post by **miffle** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:34 pm

Hei everyone,

I'm an Australian law student (dual Finnish citizen) looking for an internship/volunteer work in an organisation that works with or for refugees and migrants, and/or networking opportunities with people who work in this field. This is for a gap year I plan to take in the near future.

So far I've found:
- Suomen Pakolaisapu (Finnish Refugee Council), Helsinki
- Pakolaisneuvonta Ry (Refugee Advice Centre), Helsinki
- International Organisation for Migration, Helsinki

I plan to do my thesis on the Somali diaspora in European countries, so am also looking for any opportunities to meet Somalis and get an insight into what the asylum process was like for them, and how they have since adapted in Finland. Does anyone know of community groups, maybe a mothers' group that I could contact? I really hope this doesn't sound like I just want to leech information off people, I do genuinely want to meet all kinds of migrants in Finland and hear their stories just because I find it fascinating.

Unfortunately, as is the case with a lot of posters on this forum, my Finnish is pretty bad! I can hold a conversation well enough but wouldn't be able to actually work entirely in Finnish. So I guess when I say internship opportunity, I really mean a place that will let me photocopy and file papers so I can put it on my cv:)

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Really any kind of community work where I could get away with little Finnish would be great, since I'm a bit sceptical that I'll find anything in my actual field.

Kiitos!

**Sponsor:**

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:36 pm

If you look refugees then look people from myanmar, probably more refugees from there than from somalia..
SPR (suomen punainen risti) runs lot of asylumshopper businesses all around finland, ask them.

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:15 pm

There was an ad in a Sunday Helsingin sanomat ( 1 or 2 sundays ago..so not sure )..
that they needed volunteers ( paid) to work in different parts of the world ?
Is this something you want to look into ?

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:28 pm

They're hiring for the various refugee centres at the moment, so check up MOL for SPR or such.

inkku · Post by **inkku** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:45 am

Through here you could get contact to somalis:
http://www.koor.fi/
http://www.somaliliitto.fi/suomi/yhdistys.htm

The international evangelical church also used to visit refugees in asylumcentres, you could askthem: http://www.church.fi/index.php?option=c ... e&Itemid=1

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:10 am

inkku wrote: The international evangelical church also used to visit refugees in asylumcentres, you could askthem: http://www.church.fi/index.php?option=c ... e&Itemid=1

No, they visited asulym shoppers in there. In year 2008 there was only about 210 refugees (includes 120 quota refugees who didnt have kuntapaikka) who were some time in centers. And 2006 -> 6/2009 only 41 somalis who were real refugees came in finland, 39 in quota and 2 in other ways.

miffle · Post by **miffle** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:48 pm

onkko wrote:If you look refugees then look people from myanmar, probably more refugees from there than from somalia..
SPR (suomen punainen risti) runs lot of asylumshopper businesses all around finland, ask them.

Thanks for the tip, and also introducing me to the term 'asylumshopper'. Haven't heard that one from the right wings in Australia yet, I'll look out for it. Cheers

miffle · Post by **miffle** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:31 pm

inkku wrote:Through here you could get contact to somalis:
http://www.koor.fi/
http://www.somaliliitto.fi/suomi/yhdistys.htm

The international evangelical church also used to visit refugees in asylumcentres, you could askthem: http://www.church.fi/index.php?option=c ... e&Itemid=1

Thank you, those links are just what I'm looking for:) Should have added that I'm not ruling out church groups, though I'm not a practising Christian.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:48 pm

miffle wrote: Thanks for the tip, and also introducing me to the term 'asylumshopper'. Haven't heard that one from the right wings in Australia yet

Well you wouldn't really unless you'd have in Australia each state with its own asylum process, so someone gets rejected in Queensland, they'd go over to New South Wales and so forth. One can ask why Estonia has no refugees but Finland has or why you get people flocking the Channel to get to the UK?

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