So we’re finally here.
It’s been quite a while since I basically snapped and quit my day job. I swore that I would find things I cared about and prioritise them, but I don’t doubt that to observers my past couple months must have appeared fairly chaotic and random sometimes. In fairness, it felt fairly chaotic, but there’s been quite a bit going on outside of my direct influence! And in spite of all this, there has actually been a bizarre kind of focus and direction. I guess when you get caught up in a rut sometimes the best thing you can do is throw everything out the window and see what you find yourself gravitating towards instinctively.
I say sometimes because I’m sure there are cases where it’s best to buckle down and get a thing done. But in my case there really was no end in sight. I was simply turning down too many opportunities, or utterly failing to recognise them in the first place. So I threw myself well and truly out of my comfort zone – which is the whole point of this blog, really – and let myself run free for a little bit. I say “we’re finally here” because I’ve finally run into something that’s going to provide a bit more structure and routine again.
Since most people reading this know me anyway, you probably know enough about my background and interests. For the minority that stumbled across this through other means, I spent a good chunk of last year studying Australian Immigration Law. I am not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but I am registered, certified and qualified to give immigration advice. (In Australia it is illegal to assist anybody besides immediate family members in this area if you’re not registered – to protect people from acting on flawed advice.)
In spite of there being a decent range of ways to earn decent money as a Registered Migration Agent, I have really struggled to get excited about the idea of setting up or settling into a commercial firm where I have to dress up and act important and demand people give me money to help them earn a right I was born with – that is, the right to live in this place I’m fond of calling “The Lucky Country”. This may be a little bit of a cop-out given that I’m also terrified of being tied down to the same job again for another 8 years. And I am fresh out of uni and this is an area that really requires a bit of hands-on experience before you can really strut around like you know your shit … yeah I’ve been a bit anxious about the whole thing, in spite of the fact I did fairly well in the course itself.
Solution? Bump into an old friend who I studied with in China and get pointed towards the Refugee Immigration Legal Centre! (“RILC” from here on.)
Let’s leave aside the do-gooder aspect of this whole thing for a moment, and even the specifics of my needing to be qualified to volunteer here. Why is this awesome?
Working at a not-for-profit means several things. You do get a sense of purpose that a regular job might not have. Everyone cares about what they’re doing, and that is nice.
But the environment is different from a lot of commercial enterprises in a number of ways. It is a great place to develop one’s self and skills, for example. Your colleagues want nothing more than to see you grow and become more able to shoulder the load, as these places are generally relatively short-staffed. There is a far less competitive vibe for similar reasons. You are not expendable! The type of person this sort of position attracts in the first place tends to be more helpful and understanding. Not only that, there is a diverse range of people who all do different things in their day jobs. There is much networking and information-swapping to be had.
Of course there are corporate environments like this, but I never seem to be all that lucky when I jump into them … in short, volunteering is a wonderful, fairly safe way to start off a career.
I wouldn’t want to give the impression that volunteering is always easy street compared to paid work, though. Since not-for-profits are often short-staffed, that means the workload gets spread out more. The pace can get ridiculous, just trying to get through a mountain of work can be pretty stressful. After all, you are not expendable! And what you’re doing matters, you can’t just leave it for someone else to pick up the flack or hope it goes unnoticed.
And in the case of RILC, refugee cases can be a pretty messy area of Immigration Law. I was very worried about jumping in off the deep end, and I hoped they’d be gentle with me!
RILC deals with underprivileged individuals who cannot otherwise afford immigration assistance – people with nowhere else to go.
Last Monday night was my first “shift”. Basically it was training – I was only to observe another volunteer, a Lawyer Girl roughly my age, as she interviewed potential clients.
The Monday Night Service is the front line, all about efficiency. As you can imagine, demand for free migration assistance is high, and RILC’s resources are limited. The point is to determine which cases RILC can handle assisting. Some cases are simply too weak to succeed, some are subject to time constraints (if the application needs to be in tomorrow, for example, it’s probably too late to ask for help), and some people try to take advantage of a free service when they could afford to go pay a commercial agent instead.
The doors are open from 6:30 and people come in for their first interviews. A supervisor hands you a case, tells you a bullet-point list of facts and a bunch of things they need to know before they can proceed. You then sit down with those people and drill them for as much relevant information as you can. Every single interview I observed required an interpreter, and getting them on the phone was a process all of its own.
You then report to the supervisor again and discuss whether RILC can handle the case, and what advice you should give. So all you really get to do on Monday Night is give “nos” and “maybes”. (The “maybes” are contacted later by other volunteers who decide what will happen next.)
I mentioned volunteer positions can be fast-paced? Yeah, in this sense it was a little ridiculous.
I found the discussions with the supervisors very helpful. It turned out I knew more than I thought, and my general knowledge also came in handy at different points. (Religion and language and things like that.) I was surprised by how quickly I settled, although I’m sure after the first time I have to do an interview of my own it will be nerve-wrecking!
Due to confidentiality, I’m not going to go into detail about individual cases here. I will say that one of the nos we had to give was utterly gut-wrenchingly depressing though. I’m sure there will be plenty of that to come. Ultimately, that just motivated me to want to be involved even more. I feel like I could be alright at this, and I feel like it matters. I’m already hoping I can do more than just Monday nights.
Next week, I will not only be observing another Monday Night Service at RILC, but I will also finally be attending a Friday training session with AMES!
When am I going to start getting paid for my efforts, I hear somebody ask?
Soon, I guess! Once I’m settled into this rhythm I’ll figure it out – I’m actually starting to look forward to finding out what I’m going to get paid to do these days, and I’m so satisfied with this other stuff that I don’t think I’m going to be overly picky 🙂
A Year of Monthly Challenges 