Robin Vikaune Ciovina is a program consultant for the introductory program for refugees in Oslo municipality in Norway. He has worked with employment services for refugees in NAV (the Norwegian public employment service) for the past eight years. In 2021 he is going to start a new job as a career counselor for refugees covered by the new integration law at the Oslo Careers centre.
I made this video as part of a course focusing on social justice and career guidance that I undertook at the Inland Norway University College, in the autumn of 2020.
In 2020, the Norwegian authorities have for the first time said that they will prioritize gender-incongruent refugees to come to Norway. With the new legislative changes in 2021, refugees will have both a right and a duty to participate in career guidance.
There was little career-specific information about gender incongruence in a Norwegian context and at the same time as high unemployment was reported in the group. Based on this, I wanted to immerse myself in the topic to be able to see if there were challenges that could be addressed with career guidance. The social injustice I found through this work was immense. I was inspired by the five signposts for socially just career guidance that are presented in Career Guidance and Emancipation and by the idea of challenging Cultural Imperialism. I wanted to challenge myself to start the change right away with what was accesible for me at the time. The video shows the background for my research, what I did and my tentative approach that can be used if you are counseling gender incongruent clients.
Career guidance for social justice 