Currently I am living in Sunderland whereupon I am about to enter my third year of a Film and Media degree course at the university there. I have been involved in documenting the issue of asylum seekers for roughly four years now; not only has it been an integral part of my A-level and degree study, I have also covered it for The Hull Daily Mail, Hull-Fire student newspaper and radio and Sunderland's Utopia FM. Funny thing is, the more I investigate the more tangled the issue seems to become. This is what I will credit your documentary for encapsulating; I've always found it tricky to show both sides of the story without sounding clichéd or biased in favour of liberal ideals. But what I do have a bit of a problem with is the manner in which stereotypes of Hull have been used to emphasise asylum seeker issues. Hull has yet again been made to look like a run-down, ex-fishing town whose general populous are un-educated bigots. The only interview used outside of Tina's family, the vox-pop of the elderly man outside the post office seemed to insinuate this all too well. As a media student, I would consider myself savvy to the ways of how to lead an audience and this appeared to me to be a textbook example of how to make the protagonist appear superior. Whilst this obviously has the benefit of creating a more intriguing story, it does annoy me when it stereotypes Hull natives like me.

I consider myself a very proud Hull native and it will forever be my home; the more I travel around the country, the more I realise that fact. The reason for this is because, contrary to how the media tend to portray it, I have always found East Yorkshire to be a wonderful place to live. The people on the whole are very tolerant and friendly compared to others from elsewhere I could mention. It is a huge, thriving city with a great amount to offer and not the backwater berg that your programme depicted it as being by only showing the shots the derelict areas every city has. The majority of asylum seekers I have spoken to have always said that they enjoyed living in Hull and found more problems with internal issues such as being placed in accommodation with someone that their country was hostile toward or vice-versa. Sunderland however has been a different matter all together. The hostility toward asylum seekers there is drastically worse, so it is unfair to imply that all asylum seekers are desperate to leave Hull as your documentary again seemed to show.

But, this factor aside, that Channel 4 is willing to even tackle such a volatile issue without any of the pomposity and reactionary attitudes the BBC is showing with its series, is commendable. I only hope it is an issue that will not just be a flavour of the month.