Sin Nombre tells the story of a Honduran immigrant family on a dangerous train journey through Mexico to the US. US filmmaker Cary Fukunaga talks to Christophe Chataigné about his astounding and gripping debut
Xenophobia - literally fear and loathing of "the alien", "the stranger", "the foreigner" - has enjoyed a long if inglorious past, not least in Britain.
Over 100 people joined a protest in Sheffield on Friday of last week to show support for the Thulambo family – Privilege and her two daughters, Valerie and Lorraine – who are threatened with deportation.
Francesco and Gianluca, like their 98 Italian colleagues housed on a barge at Grimsby Fish Docks, had arrived in late January on a four-month contract to work at the French oil giant, Total, at Lindsey oil refinery in Immingham.
"We need a tougher immigration policy and we need to stop seeing it as a dilemma. It's not. It's easy. I'm going to do my best to help the British back to work." These are the words of Labour immigration minister Phil Woolas.
The government and the mainstream press are attempting to scapegoat asylum seekers in Britain. But there is a stark contrast between the lifestyle the media allege they have and the reality.
Perhaps the most sickening moment in Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour Party conference last week came when he boasted of plans to introduce a "migrant charge for public services".
Farming bosses have recently been bemoaning the lack of workers to bring in the harvest this year. While this is a refreshing change from scare stories about "floods" of migrants it still ignores the fact that conditions for migrant workers in Britain are appalling.
In agriculture, as in other low paid sectors, many workers are supplied by gangmasters or "mediators". They sometimes flout minimum wage legislation by deducting inflated sums for housing and transport directly from workers’ pay.
Every year around 17,000 visas are granted to people from countries outside the European Union to come to Britain as domestic workers. The majority are women, carrying out jobs such as caring for children or other family members, cooking and cleaning.
