Pluspunten
It is the perfect job if you like speaking with people from all over the world and identifying those who are refugees. An interest in sociology, world geography, political science, international humanitarian and international refugee law would be most helpful in your work. Applicants for international protection approach UNHCR to tell their stories and it was our jobs as Eligibility Caseworkers to assist to record their personal narratives of their flight from their countries of origin to help them see if they fell within the international definition of a refugee, as UNHCR identifies refugees for international society to protect. This was heady and interesting work and one often felt like one was doing good work, when the going was good. It felt like we were saving the world, one refugee applicant at a time.
Minpunten
There are many downsides to working with UNHCR but for a long while it was countermanded by the sheer exhilaration of our work that saved refugees. Here are the cons. The list is not exhaustive. a) the revolving door of international managers, heads of units, and head of office that appear like clockwork. Each new supervisor fresh off the boat wants to place their stamp on the office by changing what isn't broken, by modifying SOPs, by modifying workflows to what suits them, by picking and choosing which refugee policies they want to follow or discard, and by relying too heavily on politics and ignoring the importance of IHL and IRL in the determination of refugee status. Refugees and asylum-seekers thus get sacrificed regularly on the altar of this revolving door of international managers. 2) the local staff who allow themselves to get sidetracked by incompetent and political managers for the sake of some scraps from the career pile. They sell out the refugee protection mandate when they do not insist that the revolving door of managers respect and abide by the refugee protection mandate even when it is not politicallly expedient to do so. 3) Managers who feel that all staff below them are beneath them and should be mere yes-men. 4) People who seek promotion by backstabbing peers and colleagues. 5) Representatives who play favourites and turn a blind eye to megalomaniacal middle management colleagues in their midst. 6) Representatives who are themselves megalomaniacs. 7) Incompetent managers who hide their incompetence by being nasty to colleagues. Forcing out colleagues they dislike or are threatened by, through a series of SOP changes and constant amendments to team workflow and workloads. Refusing to approve annual leave the whole year and then forcing staff to burn their excess annual leave which can no longer be carried over, then getting vindictive when HR allows the staff member to clear their leave. 8) Accusing all and sundry of fraud and misconduct just because they do not understand the established forms and practices set in place by the RSD SOPs which they have failed to read and digest before criticizing staff. Getting upset because they do not know how to use proGres software and thinking everyone is just like them. 9) Forgetting that caseworkers are hired to do casework and not to be their clerical and admin assistants. There is a team for that. 10) This list is not exhaustive but I will stop here.