The first cohort of Westminster students are completing internships with the United Nations Migration Agency, known as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), thanks to an institutional agreement between the University and IOM which the two institutions signed earlier this year.
As part of the agreement, Westminster students can apply for exclusive internship opportunities at IOM offices around the world. Westminster’s IOM interns receive funding in support of their internships from the University donor funds dedicated to outward mobility opportunities, the Turing Scheme, and the Employability Innovation Awards.
Westminster students Victoria Ramirez and Anisa Rashid were among the first cohort of Westminster IOM interns successfully accepted into internship positions in Geneva and Vienna. Victoria Ramirez, a Level 5 Politics and International Relations BA student, got accepted to a four-month-long internship in the Migrant Protection and Assistance Division at the IOM Headquarters in Geneva.
Victoria has been given the opportunity not only to be part of numerous interesting and impactful projects, but also has had the chance to meet many people from different countries with interesting and new perspectives. She said: “The experience of becoming an intern with IOM in Geneva has been nothing short of fascinating. I have been able to participate in a myriad of projects that have made me feel fully involved, giving me an amazing opportunity to learn the inner workings of a United Nations agency that I aspire to work for in the future. I have also had the chance to work with brilliant people at IOM who have made sure that I feel integrated by involving me in different meetings and projects so that I may make the most out of my internship here.”
Through her work, Victoria focuses on many compelling issues such as assisting vulnerable migrants (AVM) or with assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) of migrants which constitute some of the main projects at IOM. She has been inspired by the work being done at IOM and feels happy to be part of a bigger change by helping vulnerable people across the world, even if my work is a small contribution towards this noble cause.
Victoria has also been able to travel around as Geneva is well-connected with close proximity to many interesting countries and cities, making day trips very easy to plan. “This has been a good opportunity to get to know Switzerland better, a country that I had not had the chance to visit before this internship. I am now halfway through my internship which has gone by incredibly fast, and I am incredibly excited for what is yet to come,” she added.
Another Westminster student who secured an internship through the agreement between the United Nations Migration Agency and the University of Westminster is Anisa Rashid who is a Level 6 International Relations and Development BA student. Anisa has been offered a nine-month-long internship in the Migration Health Division at the IOM Regional Office in Vienna.
During her “eye-opening” internship, Anisa has been working with South Eastern and Central Asian countries. Initially, getting to know her colleagues was achieved through a daily rotation of meetings with different staff members working in the same regional office, as well as virtual coffees to network. She has been providing input on various key issues impacting South Eastern and Central Asian countries, as well as preparing speeches and talking points for use at health conferences and presentations. She said: “Experiencing conference calls with people working in the other regional offices is always exciting for me because it allows me to stay up to date on IOM matters in this region, with weekly meetings about Ukraine and monthly meetings about the situation in Afghanistan, and I am continuing to learn more about migration problems in countries that I did not know about before, and it is a real eye-opener into the kind of work the organisation engages in.”
The organisation has been extraordinarily busy since the start of the Ukraine war, and Anisa often experiences days with back-to-back meetings with other regional offices to monitor progress on ongoing programmes, such as migratory health care for Ukrainians in neighbouring countries like Moldova.
Anisa said: “The early stages of becoming familiar with professionals who have been working in this sector for years appear overwhelming at first, but it quickly becomes clear that it is not at all scary, the work is manageable, and you learn as you go along. There is a lot of information to take in but having already built a strong rapport with my team, everything is going smoothly, and I’m looking forward to visiting my colleagues in the regional office in Austria soon.”
For more information about IOM internships through the University of Westminster, contact Dr Sahar Taghdisi Rad, Course Leader for the International Relations and Development BA Honours course.
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