My role 

Together with a team, I interviewed people living in temporary asylum shelters. We used a method called focus groups, where people talk together about their experiences. I helped prepare the interviews, asked questions, and later analysed everything we learned using a research tool called ATLAS.ti. The results ended up in a real report, published by Dokters van de Wereld, Pharos, and the Red Cross! 

At the same time, I coordinated something called the Lampion Network: a group of organisations that fight for healthcare access for undocumented people. I was the main point of contact, organised meetings, shared updates, followed policy developments, and even helped plan the annual Human Rights Day symposium. 

What I learned 

This internship taught me a lot. I got better at doing research, adapting academic writing for policy audiences, and organising big projects. But it also made me reflect on the emotional and ethical complexities of doing research in asylum contexts. 

How it connects with sociology

Everything I did was rooted in what I’d learned in my sociology classes. My training in sociological research taught me how to listen beyond words, spot patterns, and understand how individual experiences are shaped by broader structures like migration systems, institutional bureaucracy, and legal categories. 

For example, I learned to understand how some people are still left out of healthcare, even when the system looks inclusive on the outside. 

Being a sociologist in training meant I had to think a lot about my own position, what sociologists call positionality. Not just about the people I interviewed, but also about myself. My background helped me see power differences that were not always clear right away. For example: who gets to speak, who speaks for others, and how organisations sometimes explain unfair situations as if they are just neutral. 

It was sometimes hard to find the right balance. I felt close to the people and their stories, but I also had to take a step back to reflect critically on what was happening. That wasn’t always easy, but it helped me become a better researcher. 

Why a sociologist’s perspective matters

A sociologist's perspective helped me see more than just the surface-level tasks. I could understand the bigger systems behind what was happening. During my internship, I often thought back to what I learned in my sociology courses: how rules and policies become lived realities, how public stories shape who we see as “deserving” help, and how even NGOs work inside money and power systems, even when they want to change them. 

I also thought a lot about the words we use, like migrant, refugee, or undocumented. These words are socially constructed. They have meaning and can affect how people are treated. 

These insights helped me in everything I did: in how I listened during interviews, how I wrote things down, and the questions I chose to ask. For me, it wasn’t just about collecting data. It was about really understanding what was going on, and making space for alternative voices and realities.