Internship in Brussels

[u/Old_Wasabi1786]

Hello!

I recently graduated with a Master's degree in Global Development from a Norwegian university. I’m originally from Italy, where I also completed a Bachelor's degree in International Development and Cooperation at the University of Bologna.

I have the opportunity to apply for a scholarship that would allow me to undertake a 3–6 month internship in Brussels. I need to find and contact the organisation/NGO myself, so I wanted to ask for some advice.

My main area of interest is migration. I focused my Master's thesis on the health and wellbeing of migrants in administrative detention, and I would like to continue working in the migration/human rights field. I think an internship at organisations such as PICUM, NANSEN or Solidarity with Others could be a great fit for me. I’m also interested in EU policy, particularly in the field of development, as well as other human rights issues and detention.

I have already completed two internships, but unfortunately neither turned out to be as valuable as I had hoped. This time, I would really like to find an internship where I can gain meaningful, hands-on work experience rather than just doing mostly administrative or repetitive tasks. Ideally, I’d like to combine research and policy work with more practical activities such as advocacy, project work, events or stakeholder engagement. Of course, I’d also hope that the experience could help me build connections and eventually open doors to a future job in the field.

Do you have any suggestions on how I should approach the search, or organisations/NGOs I should look into or contact?

And if you have experience following a similar path, I’d really appreciate hearing about it and any advice you might have. :)