Seeing the humanity of the other

Canadians whose familiarity with London, England, is confined to films and novels produced before 1970 may have been confused, not just horrified, by the images from London that flashed across their televisions recently. The murder in broad daylight of an English solider by two black men, at least one of whom had a London accent and claimed to be a Muslim, makes absolutely no sense if you think London is the London of Foyle’s War.

The contemporary reality of London is as far from an English travel brochure as reality can be. In a relatively short period of time — 60 years — London has been transformed from an English city to a multicultural city in which Englishmen are in the minority. The new word for white people of English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish heritage is “White British.” Only 44 per cent of London’s population is “White British,” just as only 50 per cent of Toronto’s current population was born in Canada.

Toronto, of course, has always been a city of immigrants, from settlers of the early-19th century to the tired, excited, nervous families walking through Pearson Airport as you read this column today. London, too, has been a city of immigrants, but not at the rateof 593,000 arrivals to the United Kingdom a year (as in 2011). Almost half of all immigrants to the UK choose to live in London — more than 47 per cent of the UK’s ethnic minorities live in the Greater London Area. Meanwhile, it is not just London’s ethnicity that has been transformed. Twelve per cent of London’s inhabitants are Muslims, and 40 per cent of England’s Muslims live in London.