Hello, Baltics! I guess this is my first proper blog entry on this site, and we have just started distributing the information about the programme (“Kurk Lietuvai”) that I currently participate in, so I decided to share some information with you as well. I must confess that I’m not well familiar with the situation in the neighbouring countries, but as far as my own country is concerned, we have hot debates about emigration and the so-called brain drain. Academics say that there are no two ways about it - people leave looking for better opportunities, and all you can do is to focus on the improvement of the overall economic situation. Last year, however, the government of Lithuania together with two agencies - “http://www.investlithuania.com/en” and “http://www.enterpriselithuania.com” - decided to take some positive steps and created a paid one-year programme for young Lithuanians, who have completed their studies abroad and who are willing to come back to their home country and use their knowledge and skills while working on important projects.
“Photograph: BFL / Tomas Luksys”. “The members of the junior professional programme with the former Prime Minister, Andrius Kubilius”.
So here I am - one of 20 lucky and bright (a compliment for my colleagues) people. I didn’t live in my country for 5 years. I studied in London, worked for almost one year with Buddhist monks in Cambodia and also volunteered in a remote refugee camp in Thailand. As the organizers of the programme sometimes joke, they made an interview with me in the jungle. Well, that’s not entirely so, but very close to truth - I was on my way. Each four months we work in a different institution. I started with the Parliament - drafting studies on various issues of internal politics and foreign affairs. One of them was on brain drain, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I know what academics say - I did read many papers. It is my second rotation now, and I work on the issues of unaccompanied minors at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. For those, who don’t know, who unaccompanied minors are, I can briefly explain that they are illegal foreigners under the age of 18. It’s really an interesting topic, so I promise to tell you little bit about that in my next blog. My third project will most likely land at the Migration Department of the Ministry of Interior, and I will work on the family reunification. At the moment, businessmen and investors come to Lithuania and need to wait as long as two years to bring their families, so my responsibility will be to see if something could be done to shorten the existing waiting time.
The organizers always try to make a point that it is a junior professional programme, not an internship, and really, I’m happy to say that we do much more than just lifting heavy papers, copying or making coffee. To be more precise, we don’t do any of these. Each of us has our own project, and we do our best to create a long-lasting impact, which is not always easy, but also not impossible. Apart from our daily work, we attend various training sessions, go on business trips, meet important officials and also do some social activities like going back to our former high schools and talking to students about their future prospects.
The program has been featured by http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/07/baltic-exchange-lithuanians-new-home-britain (the end of the article). If you would like to learn more about this programme or maybe even start a similar initiative in your own country, please visit http://www.kurklt.lt . The website is only in Lithuanian, but you can find the contact details at the bottom of the page. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding the programme or the work that I’m doing, I will be happy to answer!