The Uniquness of London

While, superficially, London may seem just another destination for migrants, it has a series of unique characteristics, which my proposed essay will outline. First, its long history of immigration, due to the duration of its existence as a major city, meaning that it would be impossible to find any metropolis which can compare, including other apparently global capitals such as Frankfurt, New York or Paris. At the same time, the volume of migrants since the eighteenth century means that it differs from all other British cities. For much of the past two centuries London has counted about 50 per cent of all foreign settlers in Britain. Third, it also now has a unique level of diversity (or super-diversity), especially within the British context, which has become prominent over recent decades, although this also has longer term origins.