German multicultural society "has failed" -- Chancellor Merkel

Babbler

Deity
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
5,399
16 October 2010 Last updated at 16:51 ET
Share this page

Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
Angela Merkel (centre) among delegates at the congress of the youth wing of the CDU in Potsdam Angela Merkel said Germany had "kidded itself" multiculturalism was working

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.

Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.

A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".
Continue reading the main story

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.
Foreign workers

Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country... We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality.

"And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other... has failed, utterly failed."

In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism.
Muslims read Koran in Hamburg, file pic Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration

While acknowledging that this was the case, Mrs Merkel stressed that immigrants living in Germany needed to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.

"Anyone who does not immediately speak German", she said, "is not welcome".

By speaking now, Mrs Merkel has now joined the increasingly hot debate on multiculturalism, coming down on the side of those who are uneasy about immigration, says the BBC's correspondent in Berlin, Stephen Evans.

Her comments come a week after she held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's estimated 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.

Earlier this week, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, CSU, said about integration that it was "obvious that immigrants from different cultures like Turkey and Arab countries, all in all, find it harder".

"'Multikulti' is dead," Mr Seehofer said.

In August, Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany's central bank, said that "no immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime". Mr Sarrazin has since resigned.

Such recent strong anti-immigrant feelings from mainstream politicians come amid an anger in Germany about high unemployment, even if the economy is growing faster than those of its rivals, our correspondent says.

He adds that there also seems to be a new strident tone in the country, perhaps leading to less reticence about no-go-areas of the past.

Hmm, interesting. What do you think?
 
You know, I hear there's a pretty good multicultural society a coupla thousand miles west of Germany. Perhaps they should have tried modeling themselves on USA #1
 
He who doesn't know their history is doomed to repeat it , but if you do know your history, you can still repeat it.
 
^Same^(Xaniks reply to Jolly Roger)

Is the failing of multiculturalism in that it was an actual intent rather than a natural byproduct? If you tell someone "Integrate with him" they will naturaly feel resentment. If it is in their best interest to integrate, it will be a different matter.
 
I'm at a loss to explain this but why do you even need multiculturalism. Germany is a world leader without it and with those freeloaders benefiting from their socialist welfare policies, so really is it necessary?
 
I'm at a loss to explain this but why do you even need multiculturalism. Germany is a world leader without it and with those freeloaders benefiting from their socialist welfare policies, so really is it necessary?

because it needs cheap labor
 
I think that the CDU and the SPD have agreed to use immigrants as the scapegoats in Germany for the EU's failure. And from what I know about germans, they'll believe.
 
because it needs cheap labor

Even without them somebodies gotta do the cheap work right?

That's one problem with free secondary education even if everyone's got a degree somebody still needs to do the cheap work. There needs to be a way to weed people out other than bad grades.

Edit: Europe as a whole might create problems in the future, people are gaining a sense of entitlement. Look at the uproar about French President Nicholas Zarcosky increasing the retirement age.

For a socialist society to work everyone has to be willing to put forth effort and even an a society where equality is the utmost important, people have to realize perfect equality is never going to be attainable.
 
While there isn't a reason to resent a multicultural society per see, I fail to see any logical argument in favour of a multicultural society.

I can see lots of problems stemming from multicultural societies however.
 
You know, I hear there's a pretty good multicultural society a coupla thousand miles west of Germany. Perhaps they should have tried modeling themselves on USA #1
By inviting a foreign nation to kill them through war and disease, drive the survivors into the wilderness, and repopulate the country with poor migrant workers? :mischief:
 
By inviting a foreign nation to kill them through war and disease, drive the survivors into the wilderness, and repopulate the country with poor migrant workers? :mischief:

U.S society was largely anglo european at the time of the Indian wars, we did not have the multicultural society we have nowadays. Strict immigration laws were enacted in the late 19th century to counter "undesirable" groups such as chinese and east europeans.

We didnt get entirely multicultural until much later and even today if you go out west or in the midwest it isnt as multicultural as along the coasts.
 
U.S society was largely anglo european at the time of the Indian wars, we did not have the multicultural society we have nowadays. Strict immigration laws were enacted in the late 19th century to counter "undesirable" groups such as chinese and east europeans.

We didnt get entirely multicultural until much later and even today if you go out west or in the midwest it isnt as multicultural as along the coasts.
Just saying, you can't impose the history of one nation onto another (nor would you want to impose American history anywhere, nasty stuff that it was).

Besides, "entirely multicultural"?



Pull the other one! :p
 
We only had one civil war!:smug:
Furthermore, we haven't been papists!
 
I think that the CDU and the SPD have agreed to use immigrants as the scapegoats in Germany for the EU's failure. And from what I know about germans, they'll believe.

It's the same all over. Periods of economic instability and uncertainty bring about rises in nativism and xenophobia. If the great recession continues as is, there could be more restrictions on immigration.
 
Just saying, you can't impose the history of one nation onto another

Yeah you can. If you mean by "history", culture than you brits were probably the best at it.

If it weren't for your past empire English wouldn't be such a commonly spoken language across the world, and western culture wouldn't be so prevalent.
 
Top Bottom