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Employment

Consultant on durable solutions for migrant children

PICUM is looking for an external consultant to do visionary research on time horizons in best interests assessments, decisions and procedures.

Some policy makers and practitioners doubt whether member states should also consider what happens to the child after they turn 18 when assessing a child’s best interests and identifying a durable solution. As a consequence, some residence permits issued to children (especially unaccompanied children) are only valid until the child turns 18, often resulting in the child becoming undocumented and without access to a secure residence status/permit. The objectives of the assignment focus on this intersection: they are to analyse and present legal arguments and legal precedents in best interests of the child rulings with suggestions about how to expand it beyond the age of 18, as well as its opposing argument.

The assignment will take place between mid-August and mid-December 2025 and includes the delivery of three distinct outcomes: an internal briefing, the design and facilitation of an online, closed-door experts meeting, and a final report. More details can be found in the call for proposals below.

Candidates must submit their proposal to laetitia.vandervennet@picum.org, by Monday 4 August 2025, 9:00 CET. The proposal must set out rationale, activities, timeline and proposed budget, including a daily rate and other expenses, and a curriculum vitae (2 pages). Proposals will be reviewed during the week of 4 August 2025.

We do not have other open vacancies at this time. Future opportunities to work with us will be posted on this page, and on our social media.

Traineeships

Traineeships are advertised twice per year on this page, and on our social media: around June for the period of September-February and around January for the period of March-August.

We cannot accept traineeship applications outside the periods when they are advertised. Please also note that due to the large number of applications we receive, we can only get back to shortlisted candidates.

Partnerships with universities

We have no possibilities to engage in partnerships with universities for internships. However, if you teach or coordinate internships at a university offering relevant programmes such as migration studies, European studies, law, human rights etc., we invite you to share the traineeship programme information with your students.

Volunteering

We welcome volunteers to support our work remotely, depending on their availabilities. Key activities that volunteers can support include:

• Translations and proofreading: if you are a native speaker of French, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Polish or another European language and your knowledge of English is excellent (C1), or if you already have professional translation experience, you may support us as a volunteer translator. Volunteers only translate into their native language and usually translate analysis, reports, subtitles or conference agendas. Longer documents are generally divided among several volunteers. Volunteers may also be asked to proofread a translated document in their native language to make sure that the language and terminology are correct. 
• News gathering: we regularly monitor news on specific topics, and welcome the help of volunteers to gather national news.
• Audiovisual, visual art and design: we are always happy to collaborate with talented illustrators, designers, animation or video editors. Feel free to send us some samples of your work, and we would be happy to discuss potential cooperation. 
• Photography: we regularly use photos in our publications, website and social media, and welcome photo material that portraits people living in an irregular situation. If you wish to share your photos with us, please make sure we have the necessary consent to publish them on our channels.

Depending on your personal skills and interests, you are welcome to also suggest other ways in which you think you can support undocumented migrants’ rights.

If you are interested in helping us promote the rights of undocumented migrants, please sign up below.

We look forward to working with you!