Benefits Street may have come to an end but Immigration Street is just around the corner. Sparking outrage with its previous documentary in benefit entitlement, the latest offering raises questions over what defines an immigrant.
An immigrant is defined as a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. This definition has been stretched and moulded by extremists across Britain for years. It has been morphed and twisted to penalise individuals in communities.
Derby Road residents in Southampton own 300 British passports yet are still being used as the targets of Channel 4’s latest production.
Purposefully being controversial to encourage viewers and debate nationwide, entertainment values are trumping popular opinion: misrepresentation is going to be inevitable.
Despite over 95% of residents fighting plans in a door to door survey, Channel 4 are still pushing forward with the idea. Concerns raised in public consultations and protests have not been enough to dissuade Love Productions from steamrolling ahead with the programme.
Cabinet Member for Communities, Cllr Satvir Kaur said: “It’s not good enough to go from community to community around the country ripping them apart, which is what they did in Birmingham, which is what they’re doing in Southampton for entertainment and money – it’s just not good enough.”
Labour Cllr Rowenna Davies said: “It’s time for Love Productions to go home.”
Other big names supporting the residents include Southampton Itchen Labour MP John Denham.
“Channel 4 are basically saying that ‘if you’re black you’re an immigrant’.”
Is it ever right to stereotype race and use immigrants as a scapegoat? UKIPs ever increasing support and Cameron’s push for immigration quotas in the EU seem to suggest so.
Immigrants are not taking our jobs; they are doing the jobs some Britons are too lazy to do. Persecution did not work in the 1940s and it’s not working now. Derby Road has a majority of British born residents, so tarnishing a community simply for entertainment seems unfair and cruel.
The immigration row rings loud and clear on an international scale, with EU members continuing to bicker over some of the Union’s most fundamental policies. Angela Merkel supposedly issued an ultimatum for Cameron this week, according to an anonymous source: stay in the EU as it is, or leave. The news was splashed across the front of newspapers, heading the Today programme, leading news bulletins internationally and virally spreading across the internet.
On the surface, Britons may see her ultimatum as yet another shun of Cameron’s immigration quotas by the German Chancellor, but delve a little deeper and Der Spiegel merely reveals rumours: indirect quotes from ‘sources’. One thing for certain is that the article has caused an international earthquake – if publicity was a goal then it has been achieved.
But is this stirring up yet more anti-Europe feelings in the already agitated British streets? With a strong BNP and EDL presence in big cities, immigration seems to be the topic on everyone’s minds, even the PM himself has had to tailor Tory Party values to tap into the growing unease. Humanity is a sucker for pointing the finger.