Exploiting immigrants on reality TV

Canada Standard

22-05-2025

Immigrants vying for U.S. citizenship is being pitched for reality TV exploiting the migrant story is nothing we haven't already seen. DrBinoy Kampmarkreports.
SHOCKING IT MIGHT BE, yet still part of an old pattern. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security(DHS) is floating the idea of using a reality television program to select immigrants vying for U.S.citizenship.
Whether this involves gladiatorial combat or inane pillow battles remains to be seen, though it is bound to involve airhead celebrity hosts and a set of fabricated challenges. What matters is the premise: the reduction of a government agencys functions to a debauched spectacle of deceit, desperation and televisual pornography.Much, in some ways, like theTrump Administrationitself.
In aninterviewwithThe Wall Street Journal, Canadian television producerRob Worsoff, the man behind theDuck Dynastyreality show, comes clean in his monstrous intentions behind this proposed series he hopes to call 'The American'.He has been pursuing this seedy project since the days of theObama Administration, hoping for some amoral stakeholder to bite.Worsoff, in true fashion, denies that such a project is intended as malicious,let alone denigrating the dignity of human worth.
The number of asylum seekers refused at both the primary and appeal stages and still not departed exceeded 50,000 at end March 2025.
Hesaid:
In the grand idea of full bloom, optimistic America, it is intended as hopeful, but most of all, competitive.Forget equal protection and a fair evaluation of merits; here is a chance forSocial Darwinismto excel.
Worsoffinsistshe is free of political ideology:
He proposes to do this by, for instance, sending immigrants to San Francisco where they find themselves in a mine to retrieve gold.Another would see the contestants journey to Detroit, where they will be placed on an auto assembly to reassemble a Model-T Ford chassis.
The winners would end up on the Capitol steps, presumably to receive their citizenship in some staged ceremony for television.Thelosingcontestants would go home with such generous prizes as a Starbucks gift card or airline points.
DHS spokespersonTricia McLaughlinhas apparently spoken to Worsoff on this steaming drivel, with the producer describing the response as positive.DHS SecretaryKristi Noem, it is said, has not officially.
McLaughlinsaid:
The mind can only dissipate in despair at such an observation, unsurprising in a land where the television, or televisual platforms, remain brain-numbing instructors.
That the DHS is considering this is unremarkable.The Department has already participated in television projects and networks,To Catch a Smugglerbeing a case in point.Noem has also made much of the camera when it comes to dealing with immigrants. Anad campaigncosting US$200 million (AU$310 million) promises tofeatureher admonishing illegal immigrants to return to their countries. No doubt the hairdressing and makeup department will be busy when tarting her up for the noble task.
As Australia follows the U.S. in its cruel treatment of asylum seekers, it's important to remember that compassion can go a long way.
Broadcasters in a number of countries have also found the unsuspecting migrant or foreign guest captured by television irresistible viewing.Its not just good, couch potato fun, but also a chance to fan prejudice and feed sketchy stereotypes.
The reality TV showBorder Security, which first aired on Australias free-to-air Channel 7 in 2004, proved to be a pioneering model in this regard.Not only did it provide a chance to mock the eating habits of new arrivals as food stuffs were confiscated by customs officers with names like Barbs, the program could also impute an intention to attack the Australian agricultural sector with introduced pests and diseases.These depictions went hand in hand with the demonisingstrategyof the Australian Government towards unwantedasylum seekersandrefugees(Stop the Boats! was the cry), characterised by lengthy spells of detention in an offshore tropical gulag.
The plight of the vulnerable immigrant has also become a matter of pantomime substitution, an idea supposedly educative in function.Why not act out the entire migrant experience with reality television individuals with particularly xenophobicviews?
In February, this is exactly what took place in a reality television show vulgarly titledGo Back to Where You Came Fromaired on the UKs Channel 4. Spanningfour episodes, it featured largely anti-immigration participants.
Accordingto Channel 4:
It comes as little surprise that the series is modelled on an Australianprecursormade in the early 2010s.
Even pro-immigrant groups were reduced to a state of admiring stupor, with theRefugee Council, a British charity,praisingthe worth of such a show.
AccordingRefugee Council chief officerEnver Solomon:
Gareth Benest, advocacy director at theInternational Broadcasting Trustcharity, also thought the show wasinstructive.
Hewrote:
French politicianXavier Bertrandfailed to identify similar points,callingthe program nauseating. In his attack on the experiment, he saw the deaths across the English Channel as a humanitarian tragedy, not the subject of a game.But a game it has become, at least when placed before the camera.
DrBinoy Kampmarkis a Cambridge Scholar and lecturer atRMIT University. You can follow Dr Kampmark@BKampmark.