The song “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” by K’Naan ft Residente, Riz MC, and Snow Tha Product, is a clear representation of political music video. It makes a powerful statement about the current hardship suffered by immigrants within the USA. It addresses themes of injustice, sacrifice, and the craving for recognition.

Diane Rilton states that one needs to look at the politics of representation within music videos to understand how the relationship between one’s cultural identity and music videos becomes a discourse rather than unanimous “imposed subjectivities” (Rilton, 88).  The music video shows such, having a progressive reaction to the oversimplification of immigration, having themes of yearning for a country that accepts instead of believing them inferior; Wanting the same country to understand that they escaped an impossible situation and the US is their safety, their chance at life.

Audiovisual: what is believed to be US’s perspective on Immigration

The music video also shows characteristics of post-cinema within the audio-visual aspects of its form. The music video is “actively re-shaping our inherited cultural forms” (Denson and Leyda, 2016; pg. 2). It takes the superficial definition of what immigration is and humanizes it into a story of strength. The music video is shot on a train, constantly moving, searching. The different train cars show the stages of the immigrant’s move to the US. The darkness and poor lighting of most cars imply the level of importance that is shown towards them, the song going as far as stating “We’re America’s ghost writers, the credit’s only borrowed”.

Various ethnicities and job uniforms

The train cars show the darkness in which they work, the crowded spaces in which they live, and the way they contribute to a society that doesn’t want them. Near the end of the song, the viewer enters a metro car that is lit up. Some people have black lines over their eyes, implying an unidentified exchangeable group. As they take them off they ask for the recognition they deserve. 

The black lines covering their eyes are being removed

Bibliography:

K’Naan, et al. Immigrants (We Get the Job Done). 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_35a7sn6ds&ab_channel=Hamilton. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

Railton, Diane, and Paul Watson. Music Video and the Politics of Representation. Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press, 2011, pp. 87–107, r2.vlereader.com/Reader?ean=9780748633241. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

Denson, Shane, and Julie Leyda. Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film. REFRAME Books, 2016. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/POST-CINEMA_LO_RES.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

By: Costanza Maria Santacroce