Why did you move abroad? Why in Berlin?

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I had known that I wanted to leave Finland and to live in different places since a very young age. I first spent some time living in the UK after high school, mainly working as a waiter, but also doing odd jobs as a house keeper and a bar tender and so on. I moved back to Finland to do my Bachelor’s, but throughout that time I was preparing to move abroad again for my Master’s. I applied for a Research Master program in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and moved there to study for two years. During my first year there I met a man, another student, who became my very close friend. We decided that we want to live in Berlin, and so after graduation, we both moved here.

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Is there any characteristic, you can identify as peculiar of your country, you miss?



There are some good sides to the Finnish social security system. It’s far from perfect, of course, but in some ways the society takes care of individuals better in Finland than in lots of other countries. The student aid, for example, was a good thing. The education system is free of charge, first of all, up to the very highest level of education, and you get a monthly financial aid from the state. It’s not a huge sum, but it makes it possible for you to be a full time student no matter what your background is. So I think that might be a thing to miss, the education system based on the idea of equal opportunities. Though based on what I’ve been reading lately, all that might be changing in favor of privatization.

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If you look back at your life in your country, do you see improvement that justify your moving abroad? Or, do you see improvement chances?

Moving away from a familiar place always forces you to redefine yourself in some way. You need to figure out who you are in these new circumstances and surrounded by new people. You also get to test yourself, to see if you are able to handle new kinds of challenges without the safety net you are used to having. I think that has made me more independent, and also more self-sufficient in the sense that I don’t depend on other people’s opinions that much anymore. The things I’ve done since I left Finland have shown me that I don’t need to take the route everyone else does to get where I want to be.

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Do you feel integrated in the German society? In the Berliner one?

I feel integrated in the international community in Berlin. When I need to deal with the official parts of German society (Bürgeramt and such), the language barrier does become an issue.

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What does the work represent and mean to you?
 

At the moment, work is something that is making it possible for me to build a life in a new environment.

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What does this specific job mean to you?
 

I have a past in customer service, doing different jobs, such as waiting tables and working at a university’s communications department. So working with people comes naturally to me, and that is what this job is mainly about.



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Has anything changed of your approach to work since you work in a Call Center?

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This is the first time I’m working full time after years of studying, so I’ve had to redefine the way I orientate myself towards different parts of my life. This is a job that I don’t take home with me, so in a way I’ve come to separate my work from my personal life more than before.