Can I start by saying I am delighted to be here with you in Tooting today.
Tooting is a fantastic part of London.
And it is great to be here with my friend, the Member of Parliament, Sadiq Khan.
It is somewhere where people of all different backgrounds, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and those of no faith, live and work together.
A place where people don’t just tolerate each other, but build friendships, families and businesses across communities.
That’s the kind of country we want to build.
And that’s why I have come to Tooting today.
This year, 2012, will always be remembered as the year of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Memories of those Games are going to last a very long time.
Everyone will talk about the medals, the crowds, the volunteers, a nation sharing in the excitement.
But there is a lesson that stands out.
And we cannot leave this year without pausing to think about it.
It is about our unity as a country and our diversity.
The Games came to Britain because of the vibrant, generous-spirited, multi-ethnic, diverse city we presented in the London bid.
And when the medals came in, the world saw the same of our nation.
I will never forget the privilege of being in the Olympic Park.
Dancing to the Spice Girls with David Cameron and Boris Johnson at the Closing Ceremony is definitely etched on my memory.
But it was an even bigger privilege to see Mo Farah win the first of his gold medals.
If anything was a defining moment of the Olympics, amidst so many defining moments, it was Mo Farah’s victories.
And wasn’t that an amazing interview when he was asked: “Wouldn’t you rather be running for Somalia?”
And he replied “This is my country mate”.
That’s why I will be voting for him for Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday.
And we all took equal pride in the achievements of all our athletes, from Mo Farah to Jessica Ennis, to Zara Philips, the granddaughter of the Queen.
And we know: one third of Team GB medal winners had parents or grandparents born outside this country.
And their diversity was reflected in the crowds that cheered them on.
In fact, the whole Olympic experience reflected the diversity of modern Britain.
So it was an immense achievement for our country and it reflects a crucial reality about our nation today.
Social, cultural and ethnic diversity has made us stronger.
And it’s not just the Olympics and Paralympics that make me think that.
For generations, new people have arrived in Britain, often seeking sanctuary from oppression, and have worked hard to build a new life.
And they have contributed enormously to the country.
I say this as the child of immigrants.
I wouldn’t be standing here if it hadn’t been for the generosity of Britain.
My parents came here as refugees from the terrors of the Nazis.
And they made a life for themselves.
And therefore I owe my life to this country.
I went to a comprehensive school where today there are young people whose families come from over 60 countries, with 50 different languages spoken.
It is part of the success story of London: a truly global city.
I love the diversity of London.
A city to which people from all over the world have come for thousands of years.
And it’s true of our country as a whole.
A quarter of Britain’s Nobel Prize winners were born overseas.
Our NHS is staffed by nurses from all over the world.
So we are a multi-ethnic, diverse Britain.
As this week’s census, published on Tuesday, showed.
And let’s recognise the way the British people have embraced this diversity.
Because frankly we’ve had our fair share of doomsayers in Britain over the years.
From Oswald Moseley in the 1930s, Enoch Powell in the 1960s to Nick Griffin today.
Those who said it wasn’t possible for us to get along.
But what’s actually happened since the Second World War?
Despite our national troubles — from the riots in the 1980s to the horrific murder of Stephen Lawrence — we have worked together to create a more open-minded society.
Where there are strong connections between people of different backgrounds.
The census actually showed that people marry across racial, ethnic and cultural divides.
They bring up kids, and make a future for themselves more frequently and more successfully than in many other countries.
Indeed, this week’s census showed that people of mixed race are one of the fastest-growing groups in Britain.
A development people are entirely comfortable with.
That is a big change.
Division, racism and prejudice were features of everyday life for far too long in the Twentieth Century.
Many people here are too young to remember but it is only a few decades ago, signs said “no blacks and no Irish” in pubs and landlords’ windows.
Think about how people would see that today.
Today that is unthinkable and unacceptable.
That is a sign of how far Britain has come.
So I believe we have a positive story to tell.
But at the same time, as celebrating what is good, those of
us who believe in this vision must face up to the challenges not shy away from them.
We must not fall into the trap of believing that to talk about people’s anxieties is to fuel them.
And there is profound anxiety about immigration.
Some of this is economic.
I’ve talked about why we need to be tougher on unscrupulous employers, who exploit those coming here and undercut those already here.
Some of this anxiety is about where money is spent within communities, including benefits.
There is also anxiety about the pace of change.
Over the last fifteen years, migration to Britain has been faster and more extensive than it has ever been in our history.
With many people coming here, especially from those countries new to the European Union.
The last Labour government made mistakes.
As I have said before, the capacity of our economy to absorb new migrants was greater than the capacity of some of our communities to adapt.
We have said we will learn lessons from Eastern European migration and ensure maximum transitional controls in future.
And, as I explained earlier this year, we will look at the whole system of control for non-EU migration, including the Government’s cap, to ensure a system that works.
Britain must always control its borders.
It is clearly in the national interest that we do so.
But people also have important anxieties not just about people coming here but about how we live together when they do.
Our cultural and social interaction.
These are anxieties that are felt across the world, as globalisation makes it easier for people to move around.
Of course immigration has always been unsettling.
With new ways of life, new religions, new people in neighbourhoods.
It takes time for people to get to know each other.
The extent of change can intensify the anxiety.
To give a sense of the scale of Britain’s change: almost one million children in Britain now don’t speak English as their first language at home, double what it was in 1997.
And the impact of change is often felt differently in different places.
As new arrivals often settle in particular neighbourhoods.
Some towns and cities have already coped better with the changes that have occurred than others.
But I believe all areas can cope with the pressures if we recognise them and understand how to respond.
So what should we do next to deal with people’s anxieties about the way our country is changing?
Some people say that what we should aim for is what they call assimilation.
They say that people can come here and be part of our culture but only on the condition that they just abandon theirs.
Why is this vision so wrong for our country?
Because it ignores fundamental truths about the British people and who we are.
I think of the family I met on the train station in Leicester last week.
A young woman of twenty asked what I was doing there.
I said I had a long day at Labour Party events.
I asked what she was doing there?
She said she had had a long day at a family party in Leicester.
“Typical African family party” she said with a shrug.