Identity and diversity in London 2012

Officially now I am an ethnic minority in London according to the latest UK census statistics released from 2011. That is actually quite a strange thought. In London now, white ethnic Britons (ie. white people of English, Scottish or Welsh heritage) make up only 45% of the population (although all white people, including those not ethnically British are still slightly in the majority).

I don’t want to fill up this article with loads of statistics as there are plenty of other news sites that will do that, but here are some snapshots:

• London’s population is now 8.2 million – an increase of 12% since 2001, making it the fastest growing region across England and Wales

• Hounslow (Borough – where I live) has a population increase of 17.6% since 2001, Tower Hamlets increased 26.4% and Newham is up by 23.5%

• Overall in London, 37% of the population was born outside the UK (this includes those born in other European countries and also to British families living abroad)

• The top source of new migrants to London was India, followed by Poland then Bangladesh.

• Hounslow now has 23.27% of the population who are Asian or Asian British (Newham and Tower Hamlets are both at around 30%)

• The population who describe themselves as ‘mixed race’ has increased by 50% in the last decade in English and Wales as a whole.

Does it matter though? The argument always goes that the UK is made up of various invaders and immigrant populations through the centuries, many of whom have encountered discrimination and opposition when first settling here. These include the Romans, Vikings, Normans, Huguenots, Irish and Jews among many others. The pace and scale of change, though – especially in London - does seem to be something new.

Listening to a radio phone-in this morning, it was interesting to hear callers, who themselves were immigrants back in the 60s and 70s, now objecting to the presence of recent new arrivals – denigrating them in the same way they may have been spoken of when they first arrived. The area of London where I live is certainly very different to the suburb where I was brought up. My son is at a school where the class is probably 1/3 white (of various backgrounds: EU and the UK) and majority Asian (Indian / Pakistani) with some Somali. Among the parents in the playground you will hear a lot of Hindi/Urdu being spoken as well as Polish and Somali. The school has also had to expand to cater for the population increase – for the last 2 years now taking in 2 classes of children per year group, rather than one – housed in new portacabins in the school grounds.

My local Tescos and Asda stock large bags of basmati rice and chapati flour, Indian spices, chick peas, dhals, coriander, paneer – everything you previously would have had to buy from a specialist Indian grocery shop. The Asda has a large halal meat counter and a Polish section. Both Tescos and Asda had counters selling Indian sweets for Diwali. I am conscious sometimes in my local Asda of being one of very few white English people there. Some of the signs at the till are in Hindi.

Among my friends and acquaintances, the majority are probably post-war immigrants to the UK. My own family has also become global – with my 2 brothers living abroad in Asian countries. My wider family, originally from Liverpool, are now scattered around the world in Canada, the USA, New Zealand, Sweden, Alaska, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Personally I have always loved London because of this, because of its openness to new arrivals and cultures, its tolerance and freedom for people to be whoever they want to be. I love that we can at least strive to be a model for the world on upholding human rights, the rule of law and equality of all no matter what our background, ethnicity, religion and so on.

But still, a strange thing happened recently. At my son’s school, they teach about all religions, and mark each of the important days and festivals – Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year as well as Christmas and Easter. The assemblies are not therefore particularly Christian, which I was absolutely fine with, not being a believing Christian myself. Then one day I caught the end of ‘Songs of Praise’ on the television and I suddenly felt quite sad that he was not being brought up with the Christian culture that I was brought up with: he wouldn’t know all the hymns that I knew, from singing them every day at school, wouldn’t know the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ that we recited every day, the grace we said before lunch at school or the range of Christmas carols. Nostalgia set in, even though I am an atheist and don’t believe in the theological underpinning of Christianity or go to church.

I can acknowledge that for my parents, and grand parents generation – particularly in London and other cities in the UK – it may be bewildering as their neighbourhoods are changing so fast around them. It may be that the last 10 years have been an exception for the UK, with population growth fuelled by the open door policy to some of the newly acceded EU member states, by the continuing demand for highly skilled workers in the City (particularly in IT) and also by overseas students coming here to study.

For my generation (and the next one now), we have been brought up with the diversity enough to learn to embrace it. It’s probably an art and takes experience and wisdom to know how to preserve our own sense of identity whilst learning from and being open to others. Let’s hope we can continue to do so here in London and the rest of the world.