The Good Immigrant is a book of 21 essays by BAME writers, described by Sandeep Parmar in The Guardian as "an unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK", which aims to "document… what it means to be a person of colour now" in light of what Shukla notes in the book's foreword "the backwards attitude to immigration and refugees the systematic racism that runs through ". Written by twenty one British authors of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, The Good Immigrant explores the personal and universal experiences of immigrant and ethnic minority life in the United Kingdom. Shukla's book tells stories of "anger, displacement, defensiveness, curiosity, absurdity" as well as "death, class, microaggression, popular culture, access, freedom of movement, stake in society, lingual fracas, masculinity, and more".
's review in British newspaper The Independent openly praised the political nature of the book, saying: "The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, always honest. If you find them shocking, it's probably because you're white, like me, and don't have to live with any of this every single day of the week. And for that reason, if I could, I'd push a copy of this through the letter box of every front door in Britain." Similarly, another review written by Sandeep Parmar for the multi-national newspaper The Guardian judged the book as "an unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK" continuing to say "We should recognise both the courage that has been shown in producing these essays and the contradictions that necessarily exist across them. While, inevitably, some are better crafted and more convincing than others, The Good Immigrant helps to open up a much-needed space of open and unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK." Arifa Akbar, writing in The Financial Times thought that JK Rowling's involvement in fund raising for the collection contained "whisperings of white saviourism" but that despite that, "the book reads like an uncompromised work" that summarises "experiences of racism or racial pigeonholing". The book reached the top-10 non-fiction charts in both UK and US editions and was number #1 on Amazon non-fiction in the UK for a short period. It was voted the winner in the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.
Crowdfunding
In an interview at the Edinburgh Festival, Shukla stressed that the inception of this book was borne from "gatekeeping" within the publishing industry and a desire to see diverse opinions on bookshelves rather than just diversity panels. To achieve this, Shukla worked with Unbound, a British publishing house which utilises crowdfunding to enable the publication of "books readers want". In an interview with multi-national newspaper The Guardian, Unbound's co-founder John Mitchinson stated that crowdfunding means that "the handwringing that usually surrounds this issue is replaced by positive action on the part of both contributors and potential readers." The Good Immigrant reached its funding target in just three days after receiving public support from the notable authors J.K. Rowling, David Nicholls, Jonathan Coe and Evie Wyld who were amongst the book's 470 supporters. Rowling has received a dedication in the book, after her public support of The Good Immigrant with a tweet which stated that it was "an important, timely read". Nicholls also publicly endorsed The Good Immigrant stating that "I did want to support the project because it's an important subject, and not something I know enough about."
Sequel (The Good Immigrant U.S.A.)
Following the success of The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman solicited contributions from American minority writers, actors, comedians, directors, and artists.. The Good Immigrant U.S.A. was published by Dialogue Books in 2019, and includes the contributions of twenty-six Americans of colour. The contributors include: Teju Cole, Chigozie Obioma, Chimene Suleyman, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Mona Chalabi, and Jenny Zhang.
