Multicultural society

Multicultural society

More than ever before Britain is now a multicultural nation with people from different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. Since the 1920s, immigration to Great Britain has been substantial from former colonies and territories which were part of the British Empire and from Ireland. In the 1950s and 1960s a big group of immigrants came to Britain from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and other countries. They settled in London and in other cities and towns in Britain.

About 8% of the British population – round 4.6 million people – began to be made up of so called “non-whites”. People coming to live in the UK have enriched the country with new ideas, with a more dynamic economy and with a richer cultural life. The different ethnic communities have had a great influence on the shaping of Britain nowadays on fashion, food, music, language. Examples of this influence are the festivals that take place throughout the UK, like the Notting Hill Carnival, the London Mela, Saint Patrick's day, the Chinese New Year and many others. Another example is ethnic cuisine which has become an important part of the British way of eating. Altough many people living in Great Britain belong to ethnic and religious minority, there are still problems of discrimination, which can take many forms: from verbal abuse to physical attacks on a person or property. Moreover, many non-white people have lower living standards than white people and minority ethnic people are still not properly represented within the community.