Tikilluarit to Rosalia Maria Stenbakken, New Intern at Greenland Business Association

Greenland Business Association is pleased to welcome Rosalia Maria Stenbakken as an intern for the next six months. With a strong academic background in political science and a keen interest in societal development, we look forward to an exciting and rewarding collaboration.

At Greenland Business Association, Rosalia will contribute to a number of key business policy projects, including a collaboration with Rambøll on wage indices and pay transparency in Greenland. We look forward to benefiting from her professional expertise and fresh perspectives, while giving her the opportunity to gain valuable experience of Greenland’s business community and the challenges and opportunities shaping the development of Greenlandic society.

“We are very pleased to welcome Rosalia to Greenland Business Association. She brings great curiosity and a genuine commitment to Greenland, rooted in part in her own upbringing here. We look forward to working with her and following her professional development throughout her internship,” says Christian Keldsen, CEO of Greenland Business Association.

To get to know Rosalia better, we asked her a series of questions about her background, her current studies and her expectations for her time in Greenland.

Interviewer: Helle Binzer

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your name and where you come from?

Yes, of course. My name is Rosalia Maria Stenbakken, and I was born and raised in East Greenland. I lived there for the first 11 years of my life, after which my family and I moved to Nuuk in 2010. I lived there until I moved to Denmark to attend upper secondary school, where I went to boarding school.

After graduating, I worked in the restaurant industry for around three years. It was both incredibly exciting and educational, but also hard work. I therefore decided to try something different and began studying political science in 2022. I completed my bachelor’s degree a year ago and now have one year left of my master’s degree. I will graduate this summer.

What sparked your interest in returning to Greenland?

When I left Greenland to start upper secondary school, I actually did not imagine that I would return. But as I progressed through my studies and simply grew older, I began to feel a desire to come back, and it makes a lot of sense to me now.

I have both Danish and Greenlandic roots, and I am drawn to the opportunity to combine these two sides of my background through my work. That is why it felt like an obvious choice to take this opportunity and experience working in Greenland.

Do you still have family in Greenland?

Yes. My father lives in Sisimiut. When I was in upper secondary school, my mother moved to Denmark, while my father moved to Sisimiut. My connection to Greenland has therefore always remained strong. However, Greenland is a vast country, and people’s connections are often tied to a particular place. For that reason, I have not spent much time in Nuuk over the years, although I have visited the city a few times. Now felt like the right time to return, partly because I still know people here.

You did not come to Greenland alone?

No, my boyfriend came with me. He is also doing an internship and works at the Ministry of Fisheries. Hopefully, he will have the opportunity to learn a great deal about the sector.

At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to experience Greenland together and find out whether it could be a place where we might see ourselves living in the future.

What will you be working on at Greenland Business Association?

My main project will be a collaboration with Rambøll, where we will examine wage indices and work towards greater pay transparency in Greenland.

This will involve, among other things, gathering information about wage levels and examining whether there are structural differences between different industries, companies and locations across the country. Existing data from Statistics Greenland provides information on wage income, but it can be difficult to make comparisons across industries and job functions. Greater transparency can help strengthen competition and provide a better basis for both employers and employees.

Do you have any final remarks?

I would like to thank Greenland Business Association for giving me the opportunity to undertake my internship here. I am looking forward to getting started, and I hope that people across Greenland’s business community will be open to having conversations with me. Through my internship, I hope to produce work that is useful and provides real value to Greenland’s business community.