Circumstances

The article “Every race, colour, nation and religion on earth” by Leo Benedictus was published on The Guardian’s website on 21st of January 2005. It was part of a specially commissioned subsection of the newspaper called London: The World in One City, which dealt with British identity and society through a series of articles, maps, and profiles of immigrants living in London.

The article was written in response to the growing diversity of the city of London. The writer point out that London’s multiculturalism is reflected in the multitude of restaurants that serve foreign foods and the different communities that form around them (ll. 49-51). As the author notes, “London in 2005 is uncharted territory. Never have so many different kinds of people tried living together in the same place before. What some people see as the great experiment of multiculturalism will triumph or fail here” (ll. 10-12). The article, therefore, explores this multicultural environment. 

London has experienced steady population growth since the 1980s, but the white British population experienced a decline over the same period. This phenomenon is also noted b...