Mass Migration - a plan, or just a consequence of some other plan
- Thread starter Mandrak
- Start date
Huila
Padawan Learner
Switzerland solution to tackle primary Population increase by migration.
On 14 June 2026 Switzerland will get the chance to vote on wether to cap its population at 10 million people. The country's current population figures stand close to 9M. The cap if agreed upon will place strong curbs on immigration. Most of the movement into Switzerland comes from the countries it shares borders with: Germany, Austria, Italy and France (Portugal has a stronger representation than France despite not sharing a border). In the country's drive to control population; strong immigration controls from these countries will have to be part of the strategy. The right wing party in Switzerland is in favor of the move; while the government opposes it.
Switzerland's 10 Million Population Cap Referendum
If the population exceeds 9.5 million before 2050, the government would be required to restrict immigration through measures such as limiting asylum, family reunification, and residency permits. Should the 10 million threshold be crossed, the proposal mandates renegotiation or termination of Switzerland’s free movement agreement with the EU.
Supporters argue the cap is necessary to protect housing, infrastructure, and public services. Critics, including the government, Parliament, and business leaders, warn it could harm the economy by limiting access to skilled labor and disrupting key international agreements. Despite strong opposition, the referendum was triggered after over 100,000 citizens signed the petition, reflecting deep public debate over migration and national identity.
The population appears decently in favor of the vote while the government isn't. In the past 75% of Government backed referenda have passed while only 10% of Citizen proposed referenda have been successful in Switzerland.
On 14 June 2026 Switzerland will get the chance to vote on wether to cap its population at 10 million people. The country's current population figures stand close to 9M. The cap if agreed upon will place strong curbs on immigration. Most of the movement into Switzerland comes from the countries it shares borders with: Germany, Austria, Italy and France (Portugal has a stronger representation than France despite not sharing a border). In the country's drive to control population; strong immigration controls from these countries will have to be part of the strategy. The right wing party in Switzerland is in favor of the move; while the government opposes it.
Switzerland's 10 Million Population Cap Referendum
If the population exceeds 9.5 million before 2050, the government would be required to restrict immigration through measures such as limiting asylum, family reunification, and residency permits. Should the 10 million threshold be crossed, the proposal mandates renegotiation or termination of Switzerland’s free movement agreement with the EU.
Supporters argue the cap is necessary to protect housing, infrastructure, and public services. Critics, including the government, Parliament, and business leaders, warn it could harm the economy by limiting access to skilled labor and disrupting key international agreements. Despite strong opposition, the referendum was triggered after over 100,000 citizens signed the petition, reflecting deep public debate over migration and national identity.
The population appears decently in favor of the vote while the government isn't. In the past 75% of Government backed referenda have passed while only 10% of Citizen proposed referenda have been successful in Switzerland.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network provides information about the key figures involved in international human trafficking networks.
Investigating Migration and People on the Move
by Ana P. Santos • February 18, 2026
From conflict zones to regions severely affected by climate change, a mix of war, economic hardship, and environmental collapse forces many people to leave the place they call home.
The UN’s refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that as of mid-2025, roughly 117 million people had been displaced by conflict, violence, and persecution. Three in four of those were living in countries exposed to climate-related hazards, trapping them in a vicious cycle of political instability, climate extremes, and displacement.
Driven by urgency and desperation, people migrate even when safe options to move are limited. From sealed cargo trucks rumbling across deserts to makeshift detention sites hidden near Europe’s borders, the movement of migrants across countries has become one of the most urgent — and contentious — issues journalists are covering today.
At the “Migration: Investigating Movement of Peoples” session at the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, journalists from migrant origin and destination countries shared how they combine open source research, on-the-ground reporting, and even self-built databases to investigate migration.
Moderated by Carla Minet, executive director of the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico, the panel examined how to report on the scale of migration rather than treating it as a series of isolated border crossings. Speakers discussed challenging official narratives that frame abuses as border protection, compiling data for analysis, or building your own database from scratch. They also emphasized that just as urgent as the issue of migration is the need to center the needs of migrants who have grown distrustful of journalists.
Telemundo issued a public call asking readers who had traveled under similar conditions to share their experiences. The responses revealed a much larger story. Migrants, including women and children, were crammed into cargo trailers for days with little ventilation, food, or water.
“They were being picked up in Guatemala and taken all the way up to the northern border. We’re talking about thousands of miles. Women and children crammed inside these tractor trailers for days, two or three days with no water, no food, little ventilation,” said Rojas.
To gauge the scale of the smuggling operations, Rojas and his team realized they needed data.
But official statistics were fragmented or nonexistent.
“We didn’t have data,” he added. “So what do you do? Do you forget about the story? Or do you just interview some people?”
Telemundo decided to build a database from scratch. Bridging the two sides of the border. Rojas and his team were covering from Texas, the US side, but the testimonials told them that their journey started on the other side of the border, stretching from Guatemala to Mexico.
His team compiled press releases, local news reports, and incident coverage across Mexico, manually extracting key details: dates, locations, numbers of migrants, nationalities, injuries, and deaths.
Still, Rojas warned against mistaking data for narrative. “The database provides you context. It allows you to see the true scale of a problem,” he explained. “But you have to go out and talk to people. That’s where the story lies.”
The Telemundo newsroom was reporting from the US side with limited visibility into what was happening on the ground in Mexico and Central America. Telemundo partnered with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP), whose network of local reporters provided crucial context, access, and verification.
The result was Tráileres, Trampa Para Migrantes (Cargo Trucks: a Trap for Migrants), an investigation that combined rigorous on-the-ground reporting with multiple storytelling formats. At its core was a database that, for the first time, documented nearly 19,000 migrant journeys, at least 111 deaths, and hundreds of injuries. The project also included a 40-minute documentary and an in-depth multimedia special, produced with the help of animators, illustrators, and social media specialists to bring the findings to wider audiences.
Tráileres, Trampa Para Migrantes.” Illustration: Alejandra Saavedra López for CLIP, republished with permission
Before building a database from scratch, consider:
Cross-Border Reporting for Cross-Border Abuses
Lighthouse Reports and nine reporting partners uncovered a network of clandestine detention sites operating in plain sight along EU borders in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Croatia in its report, Europe’s Black Sites.
Although long rumored, these so-called “black sites” had never before been documented with visual proof or precise location data. Over 11 months, reporters combined on-the-ground investigation with open source research, analyzing videos filmed by migrants, matching visual clues such as fencing, buildings, and terrain with satellite imagery, and geolocating the sites.
The evidence collected revealed asylum seekers were held in a cage-like structure in Bulgaria, confined in overheated vans in Croatia, and detained in containers and at an isolated petrol station in Hungary. Because these facilities operate outside official detention systems, they avoid public oversight.
These detention centers were part of a broader system of illegal detention and pushbacks and, in some cases, their funding could be traced back to the EU, and they were operating in full view of Frontex officers.
Just as the abuses themselves cross borders, so too did the reporting. Lighthouse worked with partners in multiple countries, combining regional expertise, language skills, and local source networks to verify evidence and reach affected communities.
“The benefits [of cross-border collaboration] are that you get a broader range of skills and regional knowledge,” said May Bullman, editor at Lighthouse Reports. “You need that knowledge from the different countries that you’re focusing on.”
Cross-border collaboration also strengthened fact-checking, expanded access to sources, and allowed the findings to be published across different platforms and languages.
Lighthouse Reports, Europe’s Black Sites. Image: Screenshot, Lighthouse Reports
For people on the move, this shift represents risks from all sides. From state authorities, they may face retaliation, detention, or deportation simply for speaking to a reporter. From smugglers, they may face violence and intimidation — a threat that can sometimes extend to their families back home.
Speakers agreed that in this heightened environment of risk, protecting a source is more than an ethical step; it’s a survival strategy that starts with trust built slowly.
Moroccan journalist Imane Bellamine described working in a country context where both press freedom and migrants’ trust are fragile.
“When you’re working in a country where freedom is limited, try to build another alternative where you approach the community and work from within,” Bellamine said, stressing that this must be balanced with care and sensitivity. “Gaining the trust of migrants is becoming more and more difficult. Many feel the media are only extracting data and stories from them.”
Bellamine’s newsroom at the independent media outlet, ENASS.ma, counters this through interview practices that allow migrants to define their own boundaries about what they would like to share and how they want to share it. This is a crucial step in seeing migrants not as passive victims, but as experts.
“We’re treating these communities and the sources as holders of expertise and not victims. They are investigators of their own story,” Bellamine said.
Watch the full GIJC25 panel video below.
Investigating Migration and People on the Move
by Ana P. Santos • February 18, 2026
From conflict zones to regions severely affected by climate change, a mix of war, economic hardship, and environmental collapse forces many people to leave the place they call home.
The UN’s refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that as of mid-2025, roughly 117 million people had been displaced by conflict, violence, and persecution. Three in four of those were living in countries exposed to climate-related hazards, trapping them in a vicious cycle of political instability, climate extremes, and displacement.
Driven by urgency and desperation, people migrate even when safe options to move are limited. From sealed cargo trucks rumbling across deserts to makeshift detention sites hidden near Europe’s borders, the movement of migrants across countries has become one of the most urgent — and contentious — issues journalists are covering today.
At the “Migration: Investigating Movement of Peoples” session at the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, journalists from migrant origin and destination countries shared how they combine open source research, on-the-ground reporting, and even self-built databases to investigate migration.
Moderated by Carla Minet, executive director of the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico, the panel examined how to report on the scale of migration rather than treating it as a series of isolated border crossings. Speakers discussed challenging official narratives that frame abuses as border protection, compiling data for analysis, or building your own database from scratch. They also emphasized that just as urgent as the issue of migration is the need to center the needs of migrants who have grown distrustful of journalists.
Building a Database of Evidence
A massive cross-border investigation began with a tragedy. Fifty-three migrants who had been smuggled into San Antonio, Texas, were found dead. For Noticias Telemundo reporter Ronnie Rojas, the case raised urgent questions: How often were these journeys happening? Where did they start?Telemundo issued a public call asking readers who had traveled under similar conditions to share their experiences. The responses revealed a much larger story. Migrants, including women and children, were crammed into cargo trailers for days with little ventilation, food, or water.
“They were being picked up in Guatemala and taken all the way up to the northern border. We’re talking about thousands of miles. Women and children crammed inside these tractor trailers for days, two or three days with no water, no food, little ventilation,” said Rojas.
To gauge the scale of the smuggling operations, Rojas and his team realized they needed data.
But official statistics were fragmented or nonexistent.
“We didn’t have data,” he added. “So what do you do? Do you forget about the story? Or do you just interview some people?”
Telemundo decided to build a database from scratch. Bridging the two sides of the border. Rojas and his team were covering from Texas, the US side, but the testimonials told them that their journey started on the other side of the border, stretching from Guatemala to Mexico.
His team compiled press releases, local news reports, and incident coverage across Mexico, manually extracting key details: dates, locations, numbers of migrants, nationalities, injuries, and deaths.
Still, Rojas warned against mistaking data for narrative. “The database provides you context. It allows you to see the true scale of a problem,” he explained. “But you have to go out and talk to people. That’s where the story lies.”
The Telemundo newsroom was reporting from the US side with limited visibility into what was happening on the ground in Mexico and Central America. Telemundo partnered with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP), whose network of local reporters provided crucial context, access, and verification.
The result was Tráileres, Trampa Para Migrantes (Cargo Trucks: a Trap for Migrants), an investigation that combined rigorous on-the-ground reporting with multiple storytelling formats. At its core was a database that, for the first time, documented nearly 19,000 migrant journeys, at least 111 deaths, and hundreds of injuries. The project also included a 40-minute documentary and an in-depth multimedia special, produced with the help of animators, illustrators, and social media specialists to bring the findings to wider audiences.
Tráileres, Trampa Para Migrantes.” Illustration: Alejandra Saavedra López for CLIP, republished with permission
Before building a database from scratch, consider:
- What questions do we want this database to answer?
- How should the information be structured to answer those questions?
- Can information for the database be collected consistently?
- Do we have clear standards for formatting and coding?
- Have we created a shared data dictionary?
Cross-Border Reporting for Cross-Border Abuses
Lighthouse Reports and nine reporting partners uncovered a network of clandestine detention sites operating in plain sight along EU borders in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Croatia in its report, Europe’s Black Sites.
Although long rumored, these so-called “black sites” had never before been documented with visual proof or precise location data. Over 11 months, reporters combined on-the-ground investigation with open source research, analyzing videos filmed by migrants, matching visual clues such as fencing, buildings, and terrain with satellite imagery, and geolocating the sites.
The evidence collected revealed asylum seekers were held in a cage-like structure in Bulgaria, confined in overheated vans in Croatia, and detained in containers and at an isolated petrol station in Hungary. Because these facilities operate outside official detention systems, they avoid public oversight.
These detention centers were part of a broader system of illegal detention and pushbacks and, in some cases, their funding could be traced back to the EU, and they were operating in full view of Frontex officers.
Just as the abuses themselves cross borders, so too did the reporting. Lighthouse worked with partners in multiple countries, combining regional expertise, language skills, and local source networks to verify evidence and reach affected communities.
“The benefits [of cross-border collaboration] are that you get a broader range of skills and regional knowledge,” said May Bullman, editor at Lighthouse Reports. “You need that knowledge from the different countries that you’re focusing on.”
Cross-border collaboration also strengthened fact-checking, expanded access to sources, and allowed the findings to be published across different platforms and languages.
Lighthouse Reports, Europe’s Black Sites. Image: Screenshot, Lighthouse Reports
Protecting Sources
Since the mass displacement triggered by the Syrian civil war in 2015, political and social attitudes toward migration have shifted dramatically across the West. In the United States and many countries across Europe, the topic of migration has become a political flashpoint and a campaign strategy.For people on the move, this shift represents risks from all sides. From state authorities, they may face retaliation, detention, or deportation simply for speaking to a reporter. From smugglers, they may face violence and intimidation — a threat that can sometimes extend to their families back home.
Speakers agreed that in this heightened environment of risk, protecting a source is more than an ethical step; it’s a survival strategy that starts with trust built slowly.
Moroccan journalist Imane Bellamine described working in a country context where both press freedom and migrants’ trust are fragile.
“When you’re working in a country where freedom is limited, try to build another alternative where you approach the community and work from within,” Bellamine said, stressing that this must be balanced with care and sensitivity. “Gaining the trust of migrants is becoming more and more difficult. Many feel the media are only extracting data and stories from them.”
Bellamine’s newsroom at the independent media outlet, ENASS.ma, counters this through interview practices that allow migrants to define their own boundaries about what they would like to share and how they want to share it. This is a crucial step in seeing migrants not as passive victims, but as experts.
“We’re treating these communities and the sources as holders of expertise and not victims. They are investigators of their own story,” Bellamine said.
Watch the full GIJC25 panel video below.
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