Midterm Paper: Reflection Through Film "The Visitor"

Answer

Reflection through Film "The Visitor"

The visitor is a film written and directed by Tom McCarthy. It shows the story of Walter Vale, a university don moving to his apartment in New York City only to discover that two illegitimate immigrants, Zainab and Tarek Khalil staying there. He decides to allow the immigrants to continue staying on his apartment despite having little information about them. As the story unfolds, Walter establishes a good rapport with the immigrants. Essentially, the film examines various aspects of diversity through persons of different race, age, religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality, culture, as well as, social and economic backgrounds.

            Personally, Walter appears to be the visitor in the film. Through his interactions with Tarek, Walter is shortly subjected to various realities and struggles of the refuge life. As a scholar and professor of economics and world affairs, Walter examined these topics comfortably at his office despite not having real taste of these challenges. This barred him from gaining full insight into the intricacies of the issues he alleged to be knowledgeable in. As his relationship with Tarek became stronger, Walter began taking the problems that Tarek was facing as his personal challenges. For instance, Walter was astounded when Tarek was falsely detained for failing to pay the metro card. He stood there powerless and shocked with what was happening. In that scene, it can be seen that Walter was virtually vulnerable as his friend because he could not understand what was happening.  Moreover, Walter became interested in assisting his friend handle his immigration issues. On the same vein, when Tarek was deported, Walter became powerless and could no longer render any assistance to his friend.  Principally, Walter is an American person of European decent. As a fact, he is neither a member of a known minority and thus will no longer experience the cases of being a member of a marginalized community.

            Intersectionality refers to the complexity and multidimensionality of the human cultural experiences and defines the place where various identities interact (Marsiglia, & Kulis, 2016). People have various positions within several systems in inequality based on ethnicity, race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, ability status and age (Van Voorhuis, 1998). Essentially, each person is defined by a collection of identities and there are myriad of ways through which various groups can experience inequality. This idea relates to certain issues happening in the film the visitor. The intersectionality’s of each character affects their experiences. From the film, Zainab and Tarek experiences oppression and discrimination from associating with atleast one of these oppressed social identities. From micro level perspective, these characters are subjected to oppression because of their position within a social class. As indicated in the film, they identify as unlawful immigrants who are attempting to do everything possible to have a better life in New York City. Regrettably, Terek’s poor economic background together with his immigration status contributed to his deportation. Similarly, from the macro level perspective, the society treats them harshly due to their abject poverty, racism, and classism. For instance, when Tarek was falsely accused for failing to pay his metro fair, he experienced direct racism that sadly happened due to his religious affiliation. When Walter entered with him to the cell, he pays the requested fee and left without being questioned. Clearly, from this scenario, it is evident that Walter’s status made him be treated differently from his friend (Martinez, 2004). Later that evening, Walter attempted to smooth Zainab by informing her that he is going to reach out to his lawyer so that they can bail out Tarek. However, Zainab anxiously explained to Walter that they are immigrants and that this situation is likely to put them in more trouble. Clearly, this example depicted Walter’s inexperience regarding those who experience discrimination and oppression due to their social identities.

            Van Voorhuis (1998) defined oppression as experiencing protracted cruel or harsh treatment. The relationship between marginalization, oppression, ethnocentrism, discrimination, as well as, powerlessness is depicted through Tarek. As a Muslim immigrant, Tarek endured discrimination and marginalization when he was detained due to his physical appearance. Despite the fact that he never committed any offense, he obeyed the stereotype levelled against him by police officers of being illegitimate immigrant. Moreover, he had a different accent and was from a different race. This scene demonstrates ethno-centricity, since the law enforcement officers were of the same race as Walter. Powerless as a target of oppression, Tarek endured harsh treatment. In particular, he was detained and barred from receiving necessary resources to assist him continue staying in the US. For this reason, he was taken back to his native country, Syria.

            Walter did not have regard for the society, himself and others since he was ethnically disconnected and lacked identification. Essentially, Tarek provided Walter with a sense of cultural awareness by giving him information about cultural issues, background, as well as, relationships within a cultural sense thereby enabling Walter to understand the occurrences that were happening around him. Despite trying everything possible to salvage his friend Tarek from being deported, Walter remained powerless because he was trying to assist an illegal immigrant who was from a different race and ethnicity, thereby depicting marginalization, oppression, ethno-centrism, discrimination, powerlessness, and privilege.

            Freire’s view or observation of oppressors hardly identifies their monopoly of having excess privilege that discriminates others and themselves.  Essentially, oppressors often control almost all resources and monies as they believe that they deserve such resources as compared to other members of the society because they work hard to acquire them (Freire, 2007). They also believe that the oppressed do not deserve any resource or money because they have not worked hard for such resources (Freire, 2007). This is linked to the ill-fated reality that once a person is a white in the US, he or she is inevitably privileged. This is demonstrated through white supremacy, a situation in which white persons control resources and power offered in the community while non-white individuals are viewed as subordinate and are often oppressed (Martinez, 2004). For instance, when selling her products in a market with other people from various cultural backgrounds, Zainab is approached by a white American woman who wants her to lower the price so that she could buy the products. This depicts the powerlessness of the oppressed persons as the white female inevitably attempted to negotiate a reduced price, depicting the control she believed she possessed. The movie also demonstrates the power possessed by white Americans regarding specific persons allowed in the country. White Americans contend that illegal immigrants such as Tarek are not liable to have resources and money since he never sweated for them. Intuitively, Tarek is a key victim of oppression despite having worked hard to have the ends meets in New York h is still being deported for staying in the US without valid permit.

            As immigrants, Zainab and Tarek depict far-fetched acts of preservice and resilience. These traits were demonstrated through their ability to try ends meet in New York while enduring discrimination and oppression. Resilience was equally depicted by Tarek’s mother when her son was detained and later deported. Given that she was equally immigrant, she struggled with the decision to continue living in New York with Walter, a person she has known for long or return to her native country to care for his son who has been deported. However, she is alive to the fact that it she leaves, it will be impossible for her to return to the US but still went ahead and travel to her native country arguing that assisting her son is critical. In the scene where Tarek is being arrested, it is shown that Walter is extremely powerless. He could hardly understand how events were unfolding and was perplexed on how he could make the situation better.

            Illegal immigrants are often oppressed and discriminated against. Essentially, I never realized how I was unaware of the harsh and inhumane treatment of this group. This move shows the challenges that immigrants must endure and depicts the problems they face due to stringent immigration laws that happened towards the end of 2001. Therefore, the move shows scarce resources available to immigrants and the prevalence of deportation, as stressed by Tarek’s attorney.  Evidently, the society has eradicated all the possible hopes of realizing American dream because the freedom is not involved in the oppression. Instead, the movie depicts the injustice and the challenge of realizing the American dream, showcasing the shocking truth behind immigration. In a multicultural society where people are require to be treated equally regardless of their religious, social, economic and ethnic backgrounds; there is still presence of subordination and inferiority. This movie made me to become aware of the inhumane and unfortunate realities that immigrants experience while attempting to make the ends meet in foreign countries.  I have witnessed various cases of discrimination and oppression caused by the government and stringent laws and regulations that immigrants must adhere to. Indeed, this was annoying and traumatizing but I am privileged to have been raised in a completely different environment where I did not have to worry for being oppressed or discriminated against.

            This movie enabled me to understand how unaware I was regarding the procedure of acquiring legal immigration status. I was completely unaware of the difficulties involved and harsh conditions involved in the process. However, after watching the film and being made aware of these existences, I have greatly understood the challenges of trying to make ends meet in the city where one is not born in and trying to acquire residency in America. It was a lengthy and complex process but I managed to overcome my personal biases of thinking that acquiring residency in a foreign country is relatively easy. I can look back on this film and appreciate my biases and gain more information about this process.

            As a social worker, I would reach out to Walter as struggling with lowliness, depression, guilt, and abandonment. Before Zainab and Tarek moved to Walter’s home, Walter was sad and lonely. His wife had died and the audience is not informed about any other relationship he had following the demise of his wife. However, he became happy upon interacting with Zainab and Tarek. By interacting with Tarek and Zainab, Walter became fulfilled. Personally, I think that taking drum gave Walter a sense of accomplishment. However, these positive feelings disappeared when Tarek was forcefully taken back to his native country. This situation not only worsened the situation for Walter but also made him regret for not being in a position to assist his friend. As such, I would wish to assist Walter deal with these feelings and interact with him to offer him necessary resources so that he can formulate long term goals together. Moreover, I would check whether I am in a position to assist in acquiring legitimate immigration status for Zainab, Mouan, and Tarek so that Walter could get back together with his friends.