����tv

The social and cultural impact of 20th and 21st century immigration has been great in many aspects of our lives. Here are a few examples:

• Sport. The wealth of foreign players in the football Premier League, cheered on passionately by their fans, is a world away from the experience of black players in the 1970s who regularly endured racist taunts from the terraces. When Somali refugee long distance runner, Mo Farah, won gold for Britain in the 2012 Olympics, people had no difficulty seeing him as a representative of the modern UK.
• Music. The deep undercurrent of Jamaican beats in popular music, from ska and lovers’ rock, through dancehall and bashment to grime, is well known. Other influences have also been strong, from European electro house to the 1990s Asian Underground.
• Food. From doner kebabs to chicken tikka masala, spaghetti bolognese to baguettes, piri piri to bagels, sweet and sour pork to pierogi, the food brought by migrants has been adopted and embraced in this country. Even small towns without distinctive minority communities have their Chinese takeaways, Italian and Bengali restaurants and, most recently, North African and Eastern European bakeries and cafes.
• The Arts and Entertainment. In 2012 the iconic sculpture in the London Olympic Park, the Arcelor Mittal Orbit, was designed by a British Indian sculptor, Anish Kapoor. In 2014 the Best Picture Oscar was awarded to a film directed by a black British artist and filmmaker, Steve McQueen. In 2015 the most watched programme on television, the Great British Bake-Off, was won by a British Muslim Bangladeshi, Nadiya Hussain, who baked a traditionally English lemon drizzle cake decorated with a sari. These three examples show how those who we see representing Britain reflect our cultural diversity.
• Business. There are many successful business owners and managers in British today who have arrived and settled here from other parts of the world. In 2014, it was found that 8.3 million people in Britain were employed in businesses started by immigrantentrepreneurs.