Intro : Hello, today I will show you how London, capital of England, is
a shining example of a multicultural city. Indeed, since the 18th
century, London has gained a lot of population, including immigrants
from the British Empire colonies (India, Gibraltar and even a part of
Australia), making it one of the most diverse cities in the world.
However, that leads us to our key issue : How is London
multicultural, and what are the benefits and the challenges of this
multiculturalism? That’s what we’ll examine thanks to the documents
present in that portfolio, there are 5 of them.
The first document is an excerpt of a press article published talking
about London’s current mayor, Sadiq Khan. It was published on the
news website Indian Express.
The second document is the results of the 2021 Census of the
population of England, brought to us by the English Government.
The third document is an issue of the British Academy Review
published in 2010 named “‘Multicultural’ London”.
Our fourth document is an infographic showing the percentage of
Native English people in a specific region. In that case, we’ll focus on
London.
The fifth document is a graphic showing the rate of different
ethnicities feeling they belong to Britain or the local area or not.
Thanks to these documents, I will show you on one hand how exactly
is London multicultural. On the second hand, I will talk about the
benefits of multiculturalism, and finally, I will reveal the challenges
behind that ideal.
I will start with proving how London is multicultural. But first, let us
define what multiculturalism is.
According to the Collins Dictionary, multiculturalism is a situation in
which all the different cultural or racial groups in a society have equal
rights and opportunities, and none is ignored or regarded as
unimportant. This means that a wide array of ethnic groups is present
in that city, including the mayor itself, Sadiq Khan. Indeed, according
to document 1, the mayor has Pakistani origins and is Muslim, so it
shows that anyone can get a job in London, regardless of the
ethnicity or the origin. If we take a closer look at this press article, we
can notice that Sadiq Khan grew up in a rather modest environment,
because he “spent his childhood in a public housing apartment with
seven siblings”. Furthermore, in this article we can see that he and
his family were the targets of racial abuse when he grew up. And yet
that led him to be the mayor of one of the most well-known cities in
the world.
Now, if we look at document 2, we can see the results of the 2021
Census of England. Now it shows every ethnic group present in
England and Wales, broadening the horizons of multiculturalism
itself. But let’s focus on the diversity of the ethnic groups themselves.
There are 18 distinct ones mentioned in this extract of the census (for
example Indian, Pakistani, Caribbean, Gypsy or even Chinese). This
document shows by itself how much ethnic groups there are in
England and Wales, the majority living in London.
On that note, let’s move onto document 4. It is an extract of a bigger
infographic, but for the sake of clarity we will focus on that part
hereby present in this portfolio. It shows the percentage of residents
born in their respective districts. The redder the map is, the more
native people are present, and vice versa. London is in the circled
part, and as you can see there are little to no Natives born in London.
This is a pretty impressive feat, and it’s of course due to the various
ethnic groups present in London. More immigrants mean more
children from various origins and so on.
But now that we’ve proven how exactly London is multicultural, what
are the benefits of this concept? Let’s have a look.
Multiculturalism is often referred as a diversity of cultures inside a
body of land. There are many positive sides to benefit from
multiculturalism. For example, it offers an exposition of a whole lot of
cultures and traditions, but it also leads to a more diverse cultural
landscape. In the case of London, document 3 states that
multiculturalism can lead to building a “shared culture which respects
differences while building common bonds”. That means immigrated
people can both preserve their ethnicity, while learning how to adapt
to London’s culture. Besides, those people can also share a bit of
their cultures, whether it can be through food, clothes or their
manner of speaking. Further in the article, we can clearly see that
multiculturalism enables “each cultural group to learn from others”,
which correlates to what I’ve said just now basically. Even further,
multiculturalism is a good way to learn the strength and limitations of
each other. If this advice is followed, maybe in the future we will be
able to witness a society where everyone lives together no matter
their cultural differences. Despite being seen as an ideal, and utopian
view of society, multiculturalism is really a good way to track down
the inequalities and tensions between some ethnicities, so they can
be fixed quickly.
With that said, setting up a multicultural society involves challenges.
Let’s see what are the challenges present in that ideal with the final
part of my reasoning.
A society where people from all races and ethnicities can live
together in peace may seem as an ideal and an unobtainable dream.
Indeed, multiculturalism will undoubtedly have challenges to set it up
properly, in the sense of people just living together without being
bothered by a specific ethnicity. You guessed it- racism can easily be
established by a certain ethnicity thinking they are superior to others;
we do not want that happening, do we?
For example, the Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS)
reported that over a third of people identifying as Gypsy, Roma or
falling into the “Other Black” category of document 2 had been
physically assaulted due to their race, skin tone or religion. The data
collection lasted between February and November 2021, so it shows
that racism is still present nowadays and still is a major issue
nowadays. To stress on that argument, if we refer to document 1,
even the mayor itself was the target of racial abuse when he grew up,
because of his Pakistani origin. But that didn’t stop him from first
becoming an attorney and then becoming London’s mayor for almost
8 years now.
Now, if we take a look at document 5, another survey, and focus on
the right column, which is “Fairly or very strongly feeling they belong
to the local area”. We can see different ethnicities testifying about
how they are treated towards other races. About 82% of Pakistani
people do not think they are treated worse than those of other races,
while 81% people still think they are treated worse than other races.
If we take a look at another race, for example, the Indian race, 79% of
people think they are not treated worse, whereas 66% people think
otherwise. That infographic clearly shows that problems related to
ethnicity are still present to this day, and if people still complain
about them being treated worse than others, this problem needs to
be solved quickly and efficiently.
Now that we’ve seen how exactly London is multicultural, its
challenges and its benefits, we can confidently say that even if
problems are yet to be solved regarding ethnicities, London is still a
shining example of that multiculturalism, thanks to all the races
present all across the city itself and its suburbs. Challenges are
present, like I’ve said, but it is a matter of time before they are
solved, because the mayor itself can understand these problems and
solve them. But still, there are benefits to extract from
multiculturalism, because all these cultures can fusion into one giant
culture, the multiculturalism of London.
Thank you for your time.
