A peculiar kind of programme is proving popular on European television channels. It focuses on a local family who decide to emigrate in search of another, usually better, life abroad. This is the big move as epic journey and human drama, served up for domestic consumption.
Programmes about people from poorer countries, trying to breach Europe’s fortress-like borders, are few and far between. Those journeys are perhaps a bit too knuckle-biting to go down well at dinnertime. Whereas the well-heeled European family goes boldly forward, half-starved Africans collapsing onto Spanish beaches from their puny boats are merely illegal.
