Where are the migration reporters?
Future News 164: Media should take the immigration issue seriously
It’s the biggest issue outside of economics and health in the Western world, yet is anyone able to name an outlet with a dedicated ‘migration reporter’?
You would be hard-pressed. Perhaps The Guardian’s Diane Taylor, who covers human rights, racism and civil liberties, would be the nearest thing. In some senses this is baffling.Â
Compare the beat to climate change, which, of course, is related to migration. Media bosses have dedicated whole verticals, never mind lonesome reporters, to the issue.Â
In other senses it’s not baffling at all – who wants to serve ads or run other paid-for content next to stories about the UK’s broken asylum system or Texas’ crackdown at the Mexican border?Â
Either way migration, in one form or another, has consistently bedded itself in as at least a top five issue, with plenty of second and third order impacts along the way.Â
Take the UK for instance, where Rishi Sunak’s ‘small boats week’ came to a disastrous end when more people died in the English Channel and asylum seekers had to be relocated from a barge because of a Legionella outbreak.Â
The Home Secretary Suella Braverman moved them into the floating accommodation following pressure from the right-wing of the Conservative Party and after Sunak decided to make stopping the small boats a top general election pledge.Â

The Home Office had spent £2.28bn on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in the last financial year.
The Conservatives had previously and consistently promised to cut net migration to the UK to ‘tens of thousands’ and then Boris Johnson dropped the pledge in 2019, promising to have ‘fewer lower-skilled migrants’ coming to the UK and the introduction of an Australian-style points system.
Net migration went on to total 606,000 in 2022, around six years after the Brexit vote when Vote Leave also campaigned on an anti-mass immigration platform.Â
The issue has seeped into local and regional politics, with asylum-seekers housed far from Westminster in places like Coventry in the West Midlands and Knowsley in Merseyside.
The North West of England seems to be a hotspot, with a local Labour MP even calling foul on the government’s secretive approach to the system.
There has been violence. The biggest incidents have made national headlines: an arson attack on an immigration centre in Dover and clashes outside the hotels in Knowsley.
Until these eruptions, there was little reporting at a national level about the societal impact of the asylum system – both on residents and those looking for new lives.Â
The same could be said for the coverage of immigration in general. The odd trip up to Lincolnshire’s Boston, a Brexit heartland, used to suffice and that was purely focused on low-skilled workers.Â
There isn’t a shortage of angles, that’s for sure. An interesting development in Britain’s migration saga has been the use of emergency powers by the state.Â
The government has attempted to use so-called Q planning legislation to move asylum-seekers into military bases sometimes against the wishes of local councils.Â
You would expect both libertarians and leftists to be up-in-arms. But the arguably undemocratic measures have received little attention in the national media. The Home Office now faces a legal battle over the issue.
Even for those migrant workers who are legally working in the UK there are more stories to be had, especially around labour market enforcement.Â
A report from the Migration Advisory Committee, a group of independent economists who advise the government on immigration issues, raised the alarm on a potential modern slavery loophole.Â
The experts pointed out HM Revenue & Customers was so under-resourced that an average employer could expect a minimum wage enforcement inspection once every 500 years.Â
And the UK isn’t alone in facing its own immigration issue. Britain’s asylum backlog in Europe is the second largest behind Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are back on the march.Â
The opposition party, co-led by Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel (pictured above), is currently polling second behind the centre-right Christian Democrat Union at a federal level.Â
German-British historian Katja Hoyer has warned that the party are too easily taking advantage of disillusioned voters. There are now calls to ban the AfD altogether, with Der Spiegel backing such a move.Â
The debate comes almost a year after former German Chancellor Angela Merkel won the UNHCR's Nansen Award for welcoming more than 1.2m refugees to her country during the 2015-2016 migration crisis, which was effectively a result of the wars in Syria, Libya and Iraq.Â
Ireland, one of Europe’s richest nations, is also facing an asylum-seeker squeeze. Arson, protest and an ‘imploding system’ it all sounds quite familiar. But why do we only here about immigration in the news when there’s a crisis?
The MD of the company formerly known as Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, has given her first broadcast interview since being appointed by Elon Musk. The boss of X claimed to CNBC that big brands are returning to the platform, that X is becoming a ‘global town square fuelled by free expression in real-time’ and video chat calls will be coming to the website soon.
British investment trust J Rothschild Capital Management has put $10m into Puck, the media start-up which attempts to bridge Hollywood and Washington. The cash will be used to expand Puck’s headcount by up to 10 employees and expand its licencing business. The deal reportedly gives Puck a valuation of $70m. The outlet launched in 2021.
Here’s a bit of fun. Since Mark Zuckerberg is all about fitness nowadays, a YouTuber has attempted to beat his 5km time, which, by the way, is pretty solid. Unfortunately it still looks like the fight between Zuckerberg and Musk is off.
A recent report from an influential group of UK lawmakers has raised concerns about the dark-side of connected technology. The cross-party Culture and Media Committee warned the British government that offenders are using smart speakers and other devices to commit domestic abuse.
The owner of the Daily Mail, The Daily Mail and General Trust, has confirmed its interest in purchasing The Telegraph. Local newspaper group National World is also in the running to snap-up the title. Goldman Sachs will run the auction for Lloyds, which is seeking to sell both The Telegraph and its sister title The Spectator.
More fun. The return of the English Premier League has also seen the return of legendary Scottish broadcaster James Alexander Gordon. There’s one catch — JAG passed away in 2014. For a hit of nostalgia, some clever folks have used AI to map Gordon’s iconic tones so a synthetic version of his voice can ‘read-out’ the latest and greatest scores. AI Armageddon doesn’t sound so bad after all.
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