Statement on the 2023 Immigration Bill

MIT Statement on the 2023 Immigration Bill

As a movement representing migrant and refugee artists living and working in the theatre sector in the UK, we are extremely concerned about the criminalisation and demonisation of those seeking asylum contained in the 2023 Immigration Bill.

The language and narratives members of our government have been utilising to describe members of our community are not only concerning but dangerous.

We join the UNHCR and the other organisations that have expressed concerns that the Bill violates human rights conventions. Its lack of compassion erases the reality of a diverse Britain, a country that is at its best when it welcomes and includes people from all over the world. To claim otherwise is to serve a harmful, threatening, populist discourse with no base in reality.

We believe Theatre and the arts are the perfect vehicles to foster social inclusion and cohesion.

We, therefore, call on the theatre industry to join in our effort to keep making migrant and refugee artists an integral part of the British theatrical landscape. Our sector must keep reaching out to communities that feel disenfranchised and unrepresented in the arts and are threatened more than ever.

We also invite organisations to show solidarity also by signing Solidarity Knows No Borders’ Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) here.

Let us unite to prove how Theatre can act as a bridge between cultures and show that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are allies, not invaders.

In solidarity,
Migrants in Theatre