"Too little" has been done to integrate people who have settled in British society, Ed Miliband is due to say in a speech later.
The Labour leader will call for more proficiency in the English language as part of his "One Nation" ideal.
He will also admit his party's last government made mistakes in tackling the "realities of segregation" in struggling communities.
But he will underline how proud he is of "multi-ethnic, diverse Britain".
Among his proposals will be banning those without high proficiency in English from some public sector jobs that involve working closely with people, such as home helps.
He will also say that local authorities should cut their translation services if that would protect their budgets for language classes.
His speech in south London will come just days after the 2011 census showed that fewer than half the people living in London are white British.
'Immigration anxiety'The figures also showed that in 2011, 13% of England and Wales residents - 7.5 million out of a total population of 56.1 million - were born outside the UK.
Under the last Labour government, net migration rose and attitudes to immigration hardened.
Ed Miliband knows if his party is to get a hearing on the issue it has to admit to past mistakes.
So today he'll admit that Labour did too little to tackle segregation in communities - and were "overly optimistic" that integration would take care of itself.
He's trying to craft a message which would appeal both to immigrant communities and those who are concerned about the scale and pace of migration.
Just as he believes there should be more help for people to learn English, he also says those who don't have sufficient proficiency should be banned from certain jobs - such as home helps - where they are expected to work closely with the public.
And in his speech he will make clear he would consider keeping the government's cap on migration from outside the EU if there is evidence that it works - but that simply controlling numbers won't address underlying concerns about the impact of immigration.
"People of mixed race are among the fastest-growing group in the population of our country", and this is "a development with which our country is at ease", Mr Miliband will say.
According to extracts released to the media in advance of his speech, Mr Miliband will describe his enthusiasm for ethnic diversity in the UK.
"We are stronger for it - and I love Britain for it. It gives us access to new ideas, new perspectives, new energies," he will say.
"But at the same time we know there is anxiety about immigration and what it means for our culture. The answer is not to sweep it under the carpet."
In part, that means rejecting the idea that people can "live side by side in their own communities, respecting each other but living separate lives, protected from hatreds but never building a common bond - never learning to appreciate one another", he explains.
On his party's time in government, he says: "The solutions seemed abstract but the problems were real. We talked about 'shared citizenship'.
"But we did too little to tackle the realities of segregation in communities that were struggling to cope."
He is expected to criticise cuts to English language teaching despite a rising proportion of children who are non-native speakers.
'Connected, not segregated'"If we are going to build One Nation, we need to start with everyone in Britain knowing how to speak English. We should expect that of people that come here," he will say.
Labour plans to prioritise spending on English language teaching for recent immigrants over non-essential written translation materials.
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A ban on recruitment agencies advertising only for workers from particular countries will help to end segregation in the workplace, he is also expected to say.
"There are some shifts in some factories that are still segregated by language and by background. And there are jobs which still recruit far more easily from within one community than from other," Mr Miliband will say.
He will conclude that hard work can build "One Nation... a connected nation, where everyone has a stake, not a segregated one."
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