MIA references migrant crisis in powerful music videos for new track ‘Borders’

MIA has always realised some bold aesthetics in her music videos (remember the street racing in the desert in ‘Bad Girls’ and redheads running a minefield in ‘Born Free’?), and her latest is particularly striking, especially given the current political climate.

The video for ‘Borders’ sees her traveling on a boat with extras apparently posing as refugees, with one shot seeing her standing on a ship made entirely out of migrants.

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‘Guns blow doors to the system / Yeah fuck 'em when we say we're not with them / We're solid and we don't need to kick them / This is North, South, East and Western’ she sings in the chorus.

The track, the video for which was filmed in Ivory Coast, also makes reference to rising surveillance, and in the verses perhaps hints at the shallow interest some people take in important issues.

'Borders (What's up with that?) / Politics (What's up with that?) / Police shots (What's up with that?) / Identities (What's up with that?) / Your privilege (What's up with that?) / Broke people (What's up with that?) / Boat people (What's up with that?) / The realness (What's up with that?) / The new world (What's up with that?) / Am gonna keep up on all that'

‘Borders’ will feature on her upcoming new album, titled Matahdatah.