The scene is so familiar as to be unre-markable: two businessmen of different nationalities in a London restaurant being served by a waiter from a third country, all of them speaking English. But such encounters illustrate a remarkable change going on in London. Foreigners are moving in, and Britons are moving out, faster than at any time on record. The consequences are being felt across the country. Before the second world war, London's population grew steadily, along with that of most other British cities. After the war, along with that of most other British cities, it shrank-first because of the policy of shifting people out of the slums into new towns, and second because of the decline of the heavy industries which had brought people to the cities in the first place. In the 199os, other cities went on shrinking. Manchester's population dropped by 10% in 1991-2001, Liverpool's by 8%, Newcastle's by 6% and Birmingham's by 3%. London grew by 4.8% over the period, partly because it has a high birth rate, but mostly because the foreigners started arriving.
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