Stageblog - Irene Walinga - January 2024 - Finland
Stageblog - Irene Walinga - January 2024
Visit Minister Bruins Slot and Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work
January was filled with exciting visits. First of all, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot paid a visit to Finland and the embassy. It was impressive to host her and her team at the embassy after she met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland. We discussed the priorities of our embassy and the working environment in Finland.
The week after that Jurriaan Middelhoff, the Dutch Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work visited Helsinki. In Finland youth participation is encouraged and taught about in school. Even every municipality has their own youth delegation to ensure the voices of the youth are heard. Several youth delegates came to our ‘borrel’ with the ambassador and shared their experiences with youth work in Finland. It was inspiring to hear how they were trying to make a change by representing the youth at important events in Finland and abroad.
School assignment + consular affairs
I spent most of my time in the past month writing a report on the consequences of a populist radical right party in the coalition. This was part of my school assignments. Since the start of my internship a populist radical right party, called the Finns Party, is part of the coalition government here in Finland. To gather information, I interviewed Finnish professors who could tell me all about the Finnish political situation and parties. I also analyzed books, articles and newspapers. On my last day I presented my findings to the embassy team.
During my internship I also had the chance to learn more about consular affairs. Part of this was a visit to Dutch detainees in a Finnish prison, since this is one of the tasks of the embassy. It was interesting to hear the experiences of the detainees while being detained in Finland and in which ways the embassy could assist them. I also spend a day learning from the consular affairs officer about the process of passport applications and visa’s.
Family and friends visiting Helsinki
In the past months family and friends have come to visit Helsinki. They even had the opportunity to enjoy the real Finnish winter with temperatures between -15 and -25. Obviously this did not intervene with the plans to show Helsinki to them. Over the past six months the city has started to feel like home and it was a great experience to share all the beautiful sites of Helsinki. We also took a trip to Tallinn in Estonia by ferry and visited the Christmas market there.
The end!
The internship has now unfortunately come to an end and I would honestly love to stay for another six months or more. It has been a valuable experience where I could take part in so many amazing events and get to know many people who are working for ministries and other organizations. The benefits of such a small embassy were visible in the broad scope of work I could do, from economic affairs to public diplomacy to all kinds of practical tasks. I will certainly miss living in Helsinki, the calmness of Finnish people, korvapuusti’s, and the countless flag days. Above all, I will miss working with the team at the embassy who made this internship an amazing experience.
If you feel like you are ready for some really cold weather, dark days filled with Christmas lights, and most of all an exciting internship I would really recommend you to apply. Who knows next autumn you will be living in Helsinki!