Edinburgh overtakes Glasgow as Scotland's most cosmopolitan city
New Scots on the warm welcomes and lingering racism in our increasingly diverse Capital
“For me, Edinburgh is changing in terms of diversity. And let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not going back where it was,” says Jonathan Ssentamu, co-founder of family support charity Passion4Fusion.
Edinburgh is often assumed to lack diversity. Beauty and history abound in Edinburgh, but if it’s diversity and international culture you’re looking for, you’re better going to Glasgow. Or at least, that used to be the case.
In the last census, the proportion of Edinburgh residents born outside the UK overtook Glasgow; nearly one quarter of Edinburghers were born abroad, compared with one fifth of Glaswegians. Within this is a huge increase in certain demographics; the African population in Scotland grew by 98% between 2011 and 2022 (although changes in ethnicity categories between census in 2011 and 2022 census may skew direct comparisons).
So how does this new cultural diversity manifest itself? And how is life for the New Scots living in the capital?
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