Case Study D - Maria Carolina Ferreira

Carolina has a great attitude when it comes to the challenges of living in a foreign country and culture.

’There are good points and bad points; I kind of ignore the bad points and appreciate the good ones. When I came to Ireland three and a half years ago, people were very excited about the economic boom here and telling me how friendly everybody is in Ireland – but nobody told me about the weather!’

But despite this relatively minor disappointment, and her inability to build a rapport with Irish food, Ireland has more than lived up to expectations.

’I love Dublin, the social life and the friends I made here, and I’ve learned to appreciate the culture. It’s been hard though,’ she adds, ‘to combine working [Carolina has been supporting herself through waitressing] and studying, but I’ve been learning a lot.’

Having worked as a journalist back in Brazil, Carolina has been adding to her professional skills with a MA in Journalism in Independent Colleges. She has also been gaining valuable work experience, as her course offers the unique opportunity to write for the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, two of Ireland’s biggest selling newspapers.

’It was great, an achievement,’ is how she describes seeing her work being published. A recent 1,500-word article on the experience of non-nationals settling in Ireland dealt with an issue that is close her heart. For her dissertation, she plans to analyse how the huge amount of immigrants arriving in the period 1998-2008 has been covered in Irish newspapers.

So what’s next for the native of Divinópolis city? I would love the opportunity to be a journalist in Ireland because I’m very happy here. But if not, I’ll be just as happy going back home – looking at the bright side!’