Channel 4’s immigration ‘experiment’ isn’t worth the controversy ...Middle East

Who else but Channel 4 would commission a reality “experiment” about immigration and title it with that old xenophobic phrase, Go Back to Where You Came From? It’s certainly a way of getting plenty of publicity – even the bad sort. Amnesty International and refugee charities have pre-judged the programme as “a lazy stunt that demeans the plight of refugees”. Are they right? Well, not entirely.

Based on an Australian programme, the series takes six Britons with strongly opposing views on the hot potato subject and jets them off to such war-wrecked destinations as Somalia and Syria. Later in the series, they will retrace the dangerous routes taken by smuggled migrants. The idea is seemingly to present them with the dire circumstances that so many people are attempting to escape and challenge entrenched viewpoints.

Dave, a chef from Mansfield, gets the ball rolling, declaring that migrant boats should be intercepted by the Royal Navy “and get f**king blown up”. Nathan, a haulage company owner from Barnsley, opines that “we should build a wall” (he’s looking out across the English Channel as he says this – good luck with that).

Jess, whose Welsh village houses an asylum centre, believes that “people coming over are rapists and paedophiles”, and Chloe from Richmond thinks that “Islam will have taken over” in ten years’ time. At this point you might be sympathising with the Amnesty staffer who reportedly dubbed the show “racist across the world”, a reference to the BBC’s Race Across the World.

On the other end of the spectrum there is left-wing TV pundit Bushra, who reckons that people don’t really care about immigration – “they’re just racist”, she says – and podcaster Mathilda, who says that people are being manipulated by right-wing politicians and media.

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In the opening episode Mathilda, Jess and Nathan are thrown together in Mogadishu in Somalia, while Dave, Bushra and Chloe find themselves in Raqqa – or what remains of the Syrian city after Isis was driven out.

Reality TV thrives on confrontation but also loves a “journey”. By the end of the episode, we had short bursts of the former and just a glimpse of the latter. Dave, the “blow them up” chef, is cooking for a Syrian family in their bombed-out home and sobbing as he watches small children scavenging for plastic to sell.

What confrontations we witness barely dignify the word – more like talking over each other – although laddish Dave is challenged by Bushra when he says that he jokingly uses a slur for Muslims. And when Chloe offers the reasonable suggestion that help should focus on people rebuilding their lives in their own country, Bushra immediately shuts her down by calling her a “narcissistic sociopath”. Not helpful.

But it’s the reality TV format that is the real problem here. By choosing, for the sake of “entertainment”, only participants with extreme views, there is no room for the middle ground. There’s nobody here to say that, yes, these people deserve our sympathy and help but the UK simply cannot cope with uncontrolled immigration, discuss.

Channel 4 claim they want to “challenge preconceptions and ignite the national debate”. Whether or not that happens over the next two episodes, what Go Back to Where You Came From does well is provide rare insights into the terrible plight of millions of poor and displaced people.

If viewers are attracted to the clickbait title and hoping to watch what critics amusingly (if incorrectly) have dubbed A Place in the Sun meets Benefits Street, they might just get more than they bargained for.

‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ continues next Monday at 9pm on Channel 4

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