Something to Declare: Immigrants' Stand Up Comedy in the UK

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I am a first-generation immigrant who is also a working stand-up comedian and academic.As such, my primary research question is: how do first generation immigrant stand-ups in the UK use comedic performance to position themselves within contemporary discourses about migration? How do immigrant stand-ups strike a balance between ingratiation and confrontation, and how might this impact broader debates about migration in the UK? This research will result in significant insights into the political potential of racially and ethnically marginalised comics in contemporary British society. It will build on existing scholarship by explicating the specific performance tactics employed by immigrant stand-ups to navigate the political opportunities and pitfalls that stand-up comedy provides.The UK is home to 9.5 million migrants (Migration Observatory 2020). Although 14% of the UK population was born abroad, migration remains at the forefront of British political debate. At the very moment when Brexit is coming into effect, anti-immigrant sentiment has also intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Gamlen 2020). This project will document and analyse the complex role of immigrant stand-up comedians within this context, considering the aims and intentions of the performers, as well as the their dialogue with audiences. Following the success of secondgeneration immigrant comedians like Omid Djalili and Romesh Ranganathan, migrant comedians in the UK have gained visibility in the last two decades. This trend matches the greater inclusion of minorities, women and LGBTQ+ performers within the comedy scene. But where do these immigrant comedians place themselves in relation to the UK's hegemonic migration discourse when the tension concerning their very right to be in the country is on the rise?