The recent documentary by Rageh Omaar entitled ‘Immigration: The Inconvenient Truth’ shown on channel 4 was really quite insightful, only soured by its ending. During the 3 part series Rageh had identified and illustrated the problems with immigration, charting the subject from the early influx of commonwealth countries in the 1950 to the mass intake of Eastern Europeans happening today.
The series also used many passages quoted by an actor of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, a speech that Rageh had to admit was partly right at the end, though not really representative of immigration today, though personally I can still see that much of what Enoch said may still come to pass. In my eyes Powell was a visionary, much of what he said back in 1968 has come true in some form or another, that much is evident and clearly seen. Many polls seem to have been taken for the purpose of the 3 part documentary that showed we aren’t really happy with immigrants and they aren’t really happy with us, in fact less than 30% of those interviewed in one poll wanted to become British.
The whole series was interesting viewing, though sadly let down at the end in my opinion as Mr Omaar sought to illustrate the new influx of Eastern Europeans et al was just a phenomenon which as the world marketplace ebbs and flows will change, meaning people will go elsewhere, that the world is now a huge market place for global gypsies or workers to ply their skills. It was also added that Britain as a nation is reluctant to travel abroad to find work, which I find absolute bollocks. Our tradesmen have been working abroad for years, look at the building trade in the 80’s when that slumped, many travelled to Germany to gain work. Not just that, I could spend all day giving examples of the thousands of Brits that work abroad, so I pretty much find the whole not working abroad thing baseless.
The series also used many passages quoted by an actor of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, a speech that Rageh had to admit was partly right at the end, though not really representative of immigration today, though personally I can still see that much of what Enoch said may still come to pass. In my eyes Powell was a visionary, much of what he said back in 1968 has come true in some form or another, that much is evident and clearly seen. Many polls seem to have been taken for the purpose of the 3 part documentary that showed we aren’t really happy with immigrants and they aren’t really happy with us, in fact less than 30% of those interviewed in one poll wanted to become British.
The whole series was interesting viewing, though sadly let down at the end in my opinion as Mr Omaar sought to illustrate the new influx of Eastern Europeans et al was just a phenomenon which as the world marketplace ebbs and flows will change, meaning people will go elsewhere, that the world is now a huge market place for global gypsies or workers to ply their skills. It was also added that Britain as a nation is reluctant to travel abroad to find work, which I find absolute bollocks. Our tradesmen have been working abroad for years, look at the building trade in the 80’s when that slumped, many travelled to Germany to gain work. Not just that, I could spend all day giving examples of the thousands of Brits that work abroad, so I pretty much find the whole not working abroad thing baseless.
The documentary seemed to u-turn at the end for me a bit, it also seemed selective in who was interviewed, from a normal if slightly inarticulate Englishman in a pub to important people that were of foreign descent and pro immigration. I found certain elements confusing as Rageh Omaah had objectively identified many problems within Britain concerning racial tension or people born here of immigrant parents who still didn’t want to be British etc despite having no real knowledge of their foreign roots. Confusing in the fact after highlighting many things some aspects seemed to be skirted around or the subject matter moved on with a series conclusion basically saying ‘immigration’ if we can even call it that these days is perhaps nothing to worry about, despite the fact he’d interviewed people struggling in the work place because of Polish tradesmen or school teachers telling of extra strain. Mr Omaah talked to Lord Tebbit who once said ‘get on your bike’ to find work but going back to the point about us working abroad – should we really have to when we like it here? Should we also have to give up our British views and stance on immigration when immigrants here have no wish to integrate or adopt our culture to their own? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to want to retain your culture but if you’re planning on staying then surely it makes sense to become British to a degree, after all – you’re in Britain, and Mr Omaah is a good example of an African Muslim that has integrated fully and understands what it is to be a British citizen. Getting back to the documentary title, immigrants or foreign workers are becoming inconvenient and it is the truth, it’s not inconvenient in stiff upper lip typically stoic British sense, it’s inconvenient in the fact real problems are emerging and aren’t being resolved. On the whole I thought it was a good documentary series but fatally flawed in the cross section of people Mr Omaah chose to involve and the views they portrayed.
