George Silke

Hotel Babylon Ethnicity Textual Analysis

In the extract from the TV drama Hotel Babylon, ethnicity is represented
through different characters and religions. The non-white migrant worker
characters in the extract are treated like criminals when the white
immigration officer comes to the hotel to arrest a black migrant worker.
In the scene the white immigration officer is represented as being racist.
He refers to catching the immigrants as a game. When he enters the
hotel the music becomes intense. This insinuates that he is the villainous
character. The way he dresses also reinforces this. He is wearing a black
leather jacket that makes him look intimidating. He and his men storm the
hotel looking for the illegal migrant workers. At this point the migrant
workers are treated like criminals and are hunted down. The common
stereotype that migrant works are criminals has been worsened by media
platforms like the news. Even though they are honest people trying to
make a living, they are being hunted down. This makes the audience want
to sympathise with the migrant characters in the scene. When they are
huddled together in the cupboard the camera sets up a wide shot to show
how small the cupboard really is. This makes the audience sympathise
with the characters and it shows them they see each other as a kind of
family team unit.
At one point in the scene one of the migrant workers, a caretaker named
Ibrahim, gets captured and arrested by the immigration officer. When he
realises that he has been spotted, the camera dolly zooms on his face to
show the audience that he has a scared expression on his face. This
reinforces the fact that the migrant workers are being treated like
criminals. He is brutally attacked and pushed to the ground. This
strengthens the fact that the white immigration officer is represented as a
racist. He then hand cuffs the caretaker and takes him to prison.
In the next part one of the migrant workers helps another migrant worker
who has collapsed. He has intensive medical knowledge and helps her
recover. This shows that despite the fact that he is an illegal migrant
worker, he still has a wide range of medical knowledge and manages to
save the womans life.
The female Asian member of staff is the one who is trying to protect the
migrant workers from the immigration officer. She is represented as
independent and brave in the face of danger. She finds a place for them to
hide and protects them from the officer while he searches the hotel for
them.