Following the success of its January 2025 debut, the Investment Migration Council (IMC) returned to Davos, Switzerland, for a second edition of its Pop-Up House, convening the global investment migration conversation on the margins of the World Economic Forum’s 54th Annual Meeting.
Set against the Forum’s 2026 theme, A Spirit of Dialogue, the IMC Pop-Up convened policymakers, practitioners, due diligence leaders, and programme operators to examine how trust can be rebuilt in a world marked by geopolitical tension, regulatory fragmentation, and growing public scepticism.
“Investment migration sits on the same fault line as global governance: mobility, capital, security, and trust. The difference is that in our sector, trust cannot be theoretical – it must be operational”
– Bruno L’ecuyer,
CEO, Investment Migration Council
As IMC Co-Founder and Chief Executive Bruno L’ecuyer stated in his opening remarks, investment migration now operates at the intersection of mobility, capital, security, and trust. The question is no longer whether such programmes exist, but how responsibly they are governed. Through standards, due diligence, and neutral convening, the IMC aims to help move the debate beyond polarisation towards verifiable integrity and credible governance.
Framing Investment Migration Within the Davos Agenda
The World Economic Forum 2026 meeting was organised around five central questions:
- How can we cooperate in a more contested world?
- How can we unlock new sources of growth?
- How can we better invest in people?
- How can we deploy innovation at scale and responsibly?
- How can we build prosperity within planetary boundaries?
CEO, Investment Migration Council
Participants at IMC House heard how each of these themes intersects directly with investment migration, from capital flows and human mobility, to geopolitical risk, social cohesion, and regulatory trust.
The sector, IMC argued, mirrors the same structural pressures now confronting global governance, where public institutions, financial systems, and international frameworks are all facing a renewed crisis of credibility.
From Dialogue in Practice to Governance at Scale
The programme centred on two high-level panel discussions designed to mirror the broader Davos agenda.
Panel 1: Investment Migration and the Spirit of Dialogue – Dialogue in Practice explored how trust is built or lost on the ground across jurisdictions, cultures, and regulatory systems.
Hosted by L’ecuyer, the panel featured Alejandra Jiménez Beretta (Hilton Global Associates, USA), Rui Assis Passos (ERG Legal, Portugal), and Havin Gulabakh (Wardat Al-Rafidain, Iraq).
Speakers highlighted how rising scrutiny from banks, regulators, and the media has reshaped professional conduct across the industry. Transparency, consistency, and credible local intermediaries were identified as essential for navigating increasingly complex compliance environments. Dialogue, it was argued, is no longer a soft skill or reputational add-on, but a core component of professional risk management.
Panel 2: From Dialogue to Governance – Making Mobility Credible at Scale elevated the conversation to system-level accountability. Joining L’ecuyer were Karen Kelly (Exiger, Canada), Robert W. Kraft (First Pathway Partners, USA), and Atef El Kadi (Global Information Consulting Group, Malta).
This session focused on how dialogue can be translated into durable governance frameworks, with particular emphasis on auditability, independence in due diligence, enforceable professional standards, and the long-term risks of weak or fragmented oversight. Panellists warned that failures in governance do not remain contained within individual programmes, but can trigger reputational contagion, policy overreaction, and broader restrictions on legitimate global mobility.
Beyond Visibility
The Davos Pop-Up is part of the IMC’s ongoing role as the global advocate and standards-setter for investment migration. Based in Geneva, the IMC is a Swiss non-profit organisation in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, bringing together governments, academics, and industry stakeholders to promote transparency, ethical practice, and professional competence. Through research, education, qualifications, and high-level convening, the IMC seeks to improve public understanding of investment migration and position the sector within credible global governance frameworks.
This second IMC Pop-Up was therefore not designed as a showcase, but as a neutral platform for structured, credible dialogue at a time when trust deficits are reshaping global systems.
As L’ecuyer concluded, the WEF 2026 meeting was ultimately about rebuilding trust in a fragmented world, and investment migration now sits squarely on that fault line.
Through education, standards, due diligence, and convening, the IMC’s Davos presence reinforced a clear message: trust cannot be assumed; it must be governed, demonstrated, and continually earned.
