NEWSROOM MIGRATION

Despite the profound influence of migration on its politics Europe is poorly served by specialist migration reporting. While immigration correspondents are commonplace in US newsrooms there are few if any specialist correspondents across the EU, with migration reporting one among many tasks for social affairs and general news journalists.

The migration newsroom is at the centre of efforts to address the consequences of this underinvestment, while showing the way to more progressive outlets by gaining impact and audiences for more ambitious stories produced from collaborative reporting. It offers a meeting place and training ground where general reporters serving big audiences get to know migration specialists by working with them on major investigations and series. This can mean conducting original research projects at the borderline between journalism and academia, it can also mean finding innovative framings that challenge widespread misconceptions.

Invisible Workers

Europe-wide investigation reveals modern slavery conditions for migrant workers on Europe’s farms at height of pandemic

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Central Mediterranean

Revealing the EU’s role in the wholesale violation of international law and the creation of a refoulement by proxy off Libya

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Returns to Harm

Europe spends vast sums to return migrants and asylum seekers. We track the costs and consequences of this deportation machine

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Shadow Population

Why has Europe stopped counting its undocumented population and what does this tell us about the possible failures of hardline migration policies

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IMPACT

  • The fate of young undocumented people in Europe has struggled to capture public attention or sympathy equivalent to the “dreamers” in the US. A landmark series in The Guardian introduced Europe to its own dreamer generation. The widely read 6-part series was followed by a podcast and Op-Eds then republished in five more languages on VoxEurop. Several of the dreamers profiled have since won the right to remain, and been given public platforms to discuss the challenges faced by people who came to Europe as children but face numerous challenges to their right to remain.

  • In the midst of the first wave of the Covid pandemic we undertook a six-country investigation into modern slavery practices endured by migrants harvesting Europe’s fields. Invisible Workers appeared on television, online and print in 10 languages prompting criminal inquiries and helping push social conditions into EU agriculture reform talks. The series was nominated for the 2021 IJ4EU Impact Award.

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