Today the Standard launches an in-depth series on the capital's modern workforce: who are they, what do they earn, why did they come here? We start with the service and retail sector.

In the past six or seven years, London has become the Babel of the modern world. More than a third of Londoners are now foreign born - that's around 2.5 million people. Our city encompasses more than 270 nationalities and 300 languages.

Immigrants are now essential to the city's workforce, in every industry from banking to restaurants, neurosurgery to office cleaning, IT to childcare. The Pret A Manger sandwich chain alone employs migrants from more than 105 different nationalities.

That diversity looks set to keep on growing. New official figures last week showed that in 2010 an estimated 572,000 migrants entered the country on a long-term basis, 226,000 more than Britons who emigrated. Almost 238,000 foreigners were granted settlement rights in the UK last year.

Before the growth in immigration from around 1998, London was already by far the most important destination for migrants to the UK. But in 1986, half the city's immigrants were made up of those from just five countries with Commonwealth ties - India, Kenya, Jamaica, Cyprus and Bangladesh - as well as Ireland.



Since 1990, those have been joined by significant numbers from nations both from outside the EU - Nigeria, Turkey, Somalia and others - as well as from Europe. And since 2004 especially, when 10 new states joined the EU, large numbers of Eastern Europeans, especially Poles, have arrived. In fact, almost 40 per cent of all the UK's migrants now live here.

So it is that London has achieved what one recent report calls "superdiversity", a melting pot of nationalities, ethnicities and languages unequalled in Europe. It's a fantastically complicated picture - and one that's full of surprises. Who knew that Americans, for example, are one of the biggest groups from outside the EU? Many foreign-born Londoners - 43 per cent - are now British citizens, and that rises to more than four out of five of the city's foreign-born Afro-Caribbeans.

Meanwhile, the pattern of inflows and outflows is almost impossible to keep track of - not least since many migrants, especially those from within the EU who need no work permit, are highly mobile. When the jobs dry up, they move.

Ensuring that London's economy gets the immigrant labour it needs is a key challenge for the city. That's why Mayor Boris Johnson has been robust in his criticism of the Government's plans for an annual cap on numbers of non-EU migrants, an illiberal move heavily criticised by business leaders.

This week the Standard meets some of the city's workforce - today, those who work in restaurants and retail, and in the coming days, in the City, in our hospitals and on construction sites including the Shard - to find out what they are doing here and how they are re-making our city.



And we look, too, at efforts to make sure native Londoners get the education and training they need to get jobs. Together, this variegated bunch are the future of this working city.

Are you being served by a Brit? Highly unlikely

Nowhere is the multi-national "rainbow" character of London's workforce more visible than in its restaurants.

It is rare to be greeted or waited on by British staff and the kitchens are also mini United Nations of different nationalities.

Restaurateur Jeremy King says 32 countries are represented at The Wolseley on Piccadilly, including Kosovo and Mongolia. At Sketch there are 29 including a Congolese national.

At the big hotels, the staffing is even more diverse. At the newly reopened Four Seasons on Park Lane, the 450- strong workforce is made up of 60 nationalities, representing almost a third of all the countries on the planet.

In total it is estimated that around three-quarters of London's 400,000 workers in the restaurant, bars, pubs and hotels sector are from abroad.

Mike Gottlieb, president of the Restaurant Association, said: "This is England, everyone wants a British waiter but really they are very few and far between - it's just not going to happen for the foreseeable future. We are all in thrall to the foreign workers - at the moment the vast majority are east Europeans, who have a very good work ethic. If they all went home most restaurants would close tomorrow."

Michel Roux Jr said that of his 30 waiters at Le Gavroche just two are British. The two Michelin-starred chef, who championed the cause of homegrown waiting staff in his BBC2 programme Service, said the "Upstairs Downstairs" class stigma attached to the career meant that it would be "generations" before attitudes change.

The global village at Mayfair's Sketch

Gadis Sadiqah, 24

Indonesian

Job: waitress

Lives: Southgate

Came to London: 2009

Why? To study for a masters in marketing and communications at London Metropolitan University.

Loves London because: "It's so completely different to where I come from on the island of Java. It's a really busy city, so multicultural and there are lots of things to see and do. It has just opened up my mind."

Rian Steel, 29

American

Job: part-time receptionist

(also actress)

Lives: Shepherd's Bush

Came to London: 1989

Why?: Parents moved here.

Loves London because: "I love its diversity - I see it in Uxbridge Road, near where I live. You can walk through beautiful Ravenscourt Park and then you are on the river. There's so much I get really excited about."

Orientha Russell, 26

Jamaican

Job: part-time receptionist

(also model)

Lives: East Finchley

Came to London: 2009

Why? "I grew up seeing London and Britain on TV and I woke up one day and said to my mother: 'I'm going to London.'"

Loves London because: "The lifestyle and the culture - it's beautiful, I love it. There are so many opportunities I couldn't get in the Caribbean. I love the fact that I can go to Pret, I can go to a library and I can get a wi-fi connection anywhere."

Magalie Boullery, 27

French from Reunion Island

Job: gallery receptionist

Lives: Angel

Came to London: Three months ago

Why? To learn English for a job in marketing and communications.

Loves London because: "I think it's the most beautiful city in the world. The people are friendlier than in Paris. I love all the villages. It is such a cosmopolitan environment. I love Camden Market, the museums, the gardens and Buckingham Palace."

Daniel Fisher, 27

Australian

Job: sous chef

Lives: Fulham

Came to London: 2009

Why? "I was in the Alps doing a ski season and enquired about doing a temporary shift in London."

Loves London because: "I love the ease of the place, the fact that it is so easy to get anywhere else in Europe. There are so many things to see and do. There is such cultural diversity. It is so interesting working in a kitchen where 70 per cent of the people are French speakers. A lot of the time they speak to each other in French and they talk incredibly fast."

Daiva Belkiene, 40

Lithuanian

Job: guest-area cleaner

Lives: Canning Town with her daughter

Came to London: 2009

Why? "For the work - before I came to London I had no work."

Loves London because: "The different people and all the different nationalities. It is such an interesting city, there are so many different forms of transport. In my country we have buses only."

Victoria Brooks, 31

British

Job: curator.

Lives: Hackney Downs

Came to London: born in Tooting

Loves London because: "It is the best place in the world for the field I work in, experimental film and video. Everyone passes through London - it is less commercially driven."

Harpreet Pal, 24

Indian

Job: accounts assistant

Lives: Blackheath with parents

Came to London: 20 years ago but travels back regularly to India

Why? Family moved to London

Loves London because: "There's no discrimination, you have your rights. Back home there is discrimination between male and female - it's much harder to become what you want. I love the fashion, the range of food, the culture."

Jorge Quintero, 28

Colombian

Job: handyman

Lives: Earl's Court

Came to London: 2004

Why? "I wanted to live in a big metropolis where I could mix with people from all over the world. Then I fell in love with the woman who became my wife and that is why I have stayed."

Loves London because: "I like going out and partying at different clubs - my favourites are Salsa on Tottenham Court Road and Ministry of Sound. I also like the fact that there are so many different nationalities - it doesn't matter if you don't speak perfect English."

Masanori Ito, 33

Japanese

Job: chef de partie

Lives: Stockwell, with his Japanese

wife

Came to London: 12 years ago.

Why? "I wanted to learn more about London's subculture and music and then I started at a cookery school."

Loves London because: In London

you have a much better chance of starting a small business. You don't need to put so much money in as you do in Japan. You don't have to pay so much tax and the rents are not too

high compared with Japan. I want to open a small restaurant or café here."

Joseph Arowolo, 31

Nigerian

Job: bars manager

Lives: Hackney, with Lithuanian partner and baby son

Came to London: 2001

Why? To study business management at Shoreditch College

Loves About London: "The different cultures, it is totally different to Nigeria. I love to go out for a drink at Aqua (new rooftop restaurant on Regent Street)."