That's not true at all.
Europe is full of variant cultures, languages and ethnic groups that are and always have been, compared to us, closely packed. London (as well as Paris and lots of other places) has long been full of foreigners, mini-cultures and ethnic pockets. Partly by virtue of their being large attractive cities, partly as a result of their history in international commerce and colonization. When I lived in Paris (35 years ago) I met and/or worked with people from Gemany, Italy, all over Scandinavia, central Europe, Spain, Poland, Australia and New Zealand, Maylasia, all over the Maghreb and the Middle East; west and south Africa, and a few other places; they ALL contributed and continue to contribute to the richness of the place. They come for education and opportunity and simply life enrichment.
England alone, small as it is, contains way more languages and semi-intelligible dialects of English than we can imagine here. And people all over Europe are regularly at trilingual and quadrilingual before they're even out of childhood. No, Europe has been multiethnic and multicultural for many centuries, dude. And that makes it a lot more interesting and viscerally vibrant than, say, North America. As a result it's FAR more common to hear exotic languages, smell outlandish cooking, and see garb from far-flung places than it is here. And it's been that way really since before the Celts wandered in.
I still am not convinced that multiculturalism works. The cons far outweigh the pros. The evidence that multiculturalism doesn't work are the violent protests that we routinely hear about in large European cities that embrace multiculturalism like London and Paris. Decades ago these protests were unheard of. We have no such protests between various ethnic groups in the US, especially not violent ones, and yet the US accepts significantly more newcomers than any of the European countries.
Below is a link to one of many conflicts that exist in Europe, but not in North America. The main reason is because they encourage multiculturalism in Europe instead of a policy requiring newcomers to assimilate.
Violent Demonstration in Paris - July 13, 2014
Everywhere in the world has been or is multicultural. That is how it works. For thousands of years humans have migrated from one place to another, invaded other cultures, settled in areas that were also settled by people of other cultures, mixed blood with each other, and so on. This has been the case since the beginning of humankind. There is never going to be a time when that isn't so. It is always difficult and causes strife, but in the end it always works. When the Irish, Italians, etc., came to America from Europe, they lived in ghettos or their own neighborhoods, as did others who arrived during the course of American history. It takes generations for new people to blend into the the overall American culture. Those who are open minded about it will enjoy the diversity; those who aren't will always be pestered by it.
IMO, Spanish should be the second language in America, and we should enjoy that. In Europe, and around the world, many countries have a second language. No one seems to be aghast about it; it's just normal for them. They enjoy it rather than ***** about it. Where I am now is on the border with Italy; many French people here speak Italian; many Italians on the other side of the border speak French. The other day when I was a the supermarket, a women approached me and asked if I spoke Italian; she thought I was French. She wanted information about a product in the store. I said I couldn't speak Italian, but we managed to communicate somewhat anyway. The thing is, she was visiting from Italy and assumed a Frenchwoman would speak some Italian. This town, a couple of hundred years ago, used to belong to the political region controlled by Genoa.
My attitude about Americans having issues with people, even immigrants, speaking other languages is to get over it. Just get over it.
As far as the problems in London and other European cities, I have spent a lot of time in those places, such as Paris and London. I would have to go back and count how many times I've been to London or Paris, for example. The riots and strife you see in the news are far exaggerated in peoples mind. I learned a lesson long ago when I was traveling in Morocco. There was war going on there in one part of the country and the news made it look like the country was at war, but if you stayed away from the war region, which was on the southern border, you would have no idea the country was at war: everywhere else, everything was as normal. The point is that the media makes it look like there is a huge problem, but there isn't. Never once in any of those countries, have I seen any problem based on immigrants. Just haven't. And I know people who live in those countries and don't believe there is any big problem. Most of seeing a big problem with immigration is perspective
... that is indeed a great way to encourage integration into the mainstream society. Of course some may always slip through the cracks. For instance, if a child is born in France, he is a French citizen, however if his parents move elsewhere when he is still a child, he may not learn the language. When he's an adult, if he decides to move back to France since he's a citizen, he'll have no knowledge of the language, but because he's a citizen, the government would not be able to require him to learn French. I'll bet this scenario would be likely to occur amongst French and British citizens.
