Is Angela Merkel right about multi-culturalism?

Q: Is multi-culturalism doomed to fail?

No! Not necessarily. However, for it to work there has to be a minimum set of 'principles' which the majority and all minorities need to follow. These are:
>All minorities need to respect the flag, Rule of Law, rights, religions, culture and mores of the majority while the majority reciprocates. If a potential immigrant does not like any aspect(s) of the country to which he/she is trying to emigrate then he/she should stay home. For example, if I don't like Christians or beer then I had better NOT go to Germany which is a country where both are abundant!
>All minorities must know the national language or at least one of them. Otherwise you create an army of translators and increase social costs while inhibiting 'integration' and creating islands of people who can't even read the daily newspapers. Let’s face it: You can't expect Germany's newspapers, say, to be published in Swahili or Arabic or Hindi!
>Every country should have the right to send back militant or violent minorities. (Of course they have to live with their indigenous militant or violent minorities as they can't be sent back!)
If this non-exhaustive list of principles is difficult to implement then we have only two options:
1) Dissolve all Nation States and create the State of Planet Earth or
2) Everybody stays home and we hope to / try to create more even development in all countries so removing one of the push factors for emigration.

Multiculturalism was a fraud foisted upon us in an attempt to build an androgynous society. It refused to recognize and celebrate the individual culture of each country and people.
An immigrant becomes part of the multi-ETHNIC makeup of their adopted culture where it is possible to add some of their culture to that of their adopted land.
This is seen most easily in the United States in the variety of ethnic foods that have become the norm in our culture but also in words that have now become part of normal English.
Immigrants have ADDED to American culture rather than stood apart as some multicultural subset.
Assimilation is the story and strength of America. We are renewed by successive wave of immigrants who help build another layer of American culture but we remain a multi-ETHNIC country.

Multiculturalism only works under an umbrella of shared principles, which is usually not what politicians mean by the word "multiculturalism". Without that umbrella you get a new Yugoslavia or Iraq.

She has made some good points. For multiculturalism to work there has to be some sort of assimilation into society. If a person voluntarily immigrates to a country they should be ready to adopt culture, language, and laws of their new country of residence. Immigrants have to go some way to integrate themselves into their adopted society instead of being clannish. On the other hand, I have been reading about this on different sites on the internet and some posts imply Germans are generally hostile to foreigners anyway. If this is true, it shouldn’t be so surprising given their track record. I suppose old habits die hard.

Yes, multiculturalism was always doomed to fail, because the onus of changing was on the native populations, to adapt to the news immigrants, or to allow the new immigrants to live in self segregated areas, not integrating. The better approach, and the approach that the US used to take was the melting pot approach, where people were expected to assimilate. Instead, now I cannot even understand the signs on about half of the busses in the DC area because they aren't even in english. My ancestors were expected to assimilate, are the new ones too good/special that it's not expected of them? The country is better off with assimilation, it's not like you lose your ethnic/racial identity. Unity is better than disunity.

Immigrants are not a homogenous group. In my opinion, multiculturalism has worked well with those who are tolerant and grateful to their hosts. These immigrants work hard, respect the culture of indigenous and others, and they integrate quickly. Those who segregate themselves by overlooking other cultures, they don’t want to integrate. They are in Europe simply to milk its welfare. My message to them is that: - Do not cross the line, please. Respect the culture of the hosts first. If you cannot fit in, then feel free to leave.
I also would like to say that the multiculturalism never worked within the Ottoman Empire, at least in Balkan countries. Sultan only forced Europeans living in Balkan to become Muslims. This was done by imposing heavier economic taxes and national service on those who resisted converting to Islam. So there is not any positive thing to learn from the Ottoman Empire regarding multiculturalism.

Perhaps we should adopt the Saudi Arabian approach that immigrant Christians are welcome to meet and worship in a rented building (on a Friday of course) but not build churches. But then again perhaps not. What we should do is welcome immigrants to THIS country, so no compromise at all in our way of life over silly PC issues.

My doctor's surgery often gets in a muddle because instead of using christian names (sometimes called given names)they insist on using first names and like many families our first forenames are NOT our given names. The reason apparently is that if a Muslim is asked their christian name they may be offended what utter tosh, our historical religion is part of our culture and language if immigrants can't adjust the door is open they can leave. If they can adjust our hearts should be open and they are welcome to become part of our great society. Naturally we hope they come to a knowledge of the truth and in time become disciples of the Lord Jesus but that is not a condition of them becoming part of our society and more than it is for secularists.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

To add to what comment #6 and #7 wrote. Surely by the time someone makes up their mind to move to another country they should know something about that society and if they fell they will not be able to fit or will not what to fit in for whatever reasons for example religious or cultural, then they should save themselves the bother and not waste their money on the ticket.

Apparently Merkel fears that Germany is neither healthy nor resilient. She acknowledges the aberrant tendency of her country (and perhaps the pervading sentiment of Europeans in general) to be xenophobic and nationalistic when they are insecure.

The democratic process is a process of balancing the good of the many AND the good of the few. It requires flexibility on both sides to accomplish. That Merkel is willing to declare the German experiment in creating a peaceabe, respectful, multicultural (pluralistic) society a "...failure. Utter failure!" could be seen in two ways:

1) Germany will abandon the attempt altogether, and retrench itself in "traditional values", nationalism, xenophobia, scapegoating, etc.

-OR- (One would hope!)

2) Germany could face up to its failure and purposefully create a more tolerant, pluralistic, and open society.

I trust it will be the latter because Germany's past demonstrates the devastation that may arise if they don't!

Recall, the issue of integration is not limited to non europeans moving to europe. I hear all the time about either American or UK nationals, buying homes in Spain or France, and not learning Spanish or French, and the locals are pretty resentful of it.

I studied German in high school and in college, and when I visit Germany, the Germans are actually amazed that I can speak German, though they immediately want to speak in English, so it's hard to practice it..

Multiculturalism works only when no single culture defines society in its own image. Apparently, Chancellor Merkel perceives that Germans wish Germany to look and feel German. That is, for German culture to define German society. If the non-Germanic cultures wish a society defined in their image, why are they in Germany? The point is of course, that the indigenous majority culture always defines society within a region. It is the responsibility of visitors to adapt, or to not visit.
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People migrate for better economic and/or social conditions. If they can accomplish this with minimum change to their lifestyle then they will generally not make the effort to change, and will transplant their lifestyle to the new destination. (e.g. British expats in Spain or Dubai).
If assimilation is an issue to the host population, then it should be a requirement for immigrants. Secular countries have to find a way to make assimilation policies compatible with the tolerant values of secularism.
From the sounds of it however, it feels like Merkel is playing to the beying crowd. It's a recession. In recession people blame foreigners for everything that's going wrong. Politicians will ride this wave, but they can only go so far since they are committed to the profits of business which thrives on floods of cheap immigrant labour.
Call my cynical, but it feels like she's saying that the only reason we shouldn't be xenophobic is because it hurts the economy.

Immigrants are being targeted all over europe and the united states as drains on public resources. Such talk makes it sound as if all we needed to do to fix our global financial problems is to send everyone to their home countries. Skilled worker or not all of these countries are dependent or have at some point depended on immigrant labor and the informal economy that rises around them. The idea that they'd abandon their new home when the government decides that they're no longer useful is ridiculous. I don't disagree that immigrants should learn the language of their adopted countries. But the idea that they need to adopt specific religious values only creates animosity toward and fear of the unknown. It is possible to be a good citizen regardless of religious ideology. From the multiple versions of this story and various quotations it seems that the German Chancellor is trying hard but failing to walk that fine line between asserting the governments expectations without alienating "useful" immigrants.

Hey Dan, soon as I skin this Buffalo, we'll squat in my tepee and discuss integration as immigrants into our adopted culture. Oops, too late. There's all this invoking of notions of language, culture, society and religion, but it's really about the economy (stupid, to quote Bill Clinton). As long as Germany, and the rest of us, felt prosperous selling and buying too much junk with unsustainably-available credit propped-up by housing prices and demand that bore no rational relationship to value, wages or social or personal financial security, subsidized energy and cheap resources, often extracted from the same parts of the world from which the immigrants fled, then we were all-to happy to absorb cheap immigrant labor. The fragility of that system, perhaps the end of that system forever, is showing and so is our intolerance of the very notion of diversity and community. For the most part, it was we smart, rich, white people who put the geographic borders where they are and it's largely those borders, rather than religion or culture or heredity, that determine who prospers, who gets an education, one's health, security and happiness.

For the most part, it was we smart, rich, white people who put the geographic borders where they are and it's largely those borders, rather than religion or culture or heredity, that determine who prospers, who gets an education, one's health, security and happiness.

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See, this is an example of why we have failed policies like multiculuralism, rather than melting pots, because of liberal guilt. You feel guilty about something someone who looks like you did a long time ago. Guilt is NOT a good basis for making policies, especially ones that have a great impact.

Multiculturalism can work and is working ,including in USA and India.
The prerequisite is for the country to treat ethnic communities fairly and it is for the ethnic communities to integrate into them main stream by learning the language and respecting the Majority culture.
Certain groups,like Muslims find it difficult(though not all of them);for them Religion comes first.These attitudes must change.
Other wise 'Lebensraum'( living Space) might revisit.
Let us not provoke it.

Multiculturalism can become a source of conflict in a society if there are opposing views that can make living together impossible. There are cases of societies which witnessed civil wars because its fabric is made of opposite tendencies. Lebanon is an example. It witnessed a devastating civil war for 17 years because of differences between Muslims and Christians.

In case of Europe, it is a continent with its structured culture which is far different from that of the East. But this doesn't mean it should impose its culture on those who settle in it. There is no fear that it will disappear as almost no society is influenced by it despite the facade of having a national culture.

What is needed is to foster tolerance between cultures and to learn from them. Asking immigrants to abandon their roots is to implicitly ask them to leave in case they don't follow suit.

Finally we can learn from Malaysia which claims to be truly Asia.

At 3:45pm on 18 Oct 2010, ramanan50 wrote:
"Multiculturalism can work and is working ,including in USA.... The prerequisite is for the country to treat ethnic communities fairly....."

So how's that working out in Arizona?

Growing up, I spoke Spanish at home and English outside my home. As a teenager I swooned over Duran Duran like every other American teenie bopper at that time, and I danced to cumbias at home. I ate burgers with my friends at lunch and had arroz con habichuelas for dinner at home. My parents spoke english outside the home (albeit with thick accents) and spanish at home. My father was able to swear in english like a champ when he was cut off in traffic. This all seemed natural and effortless, but maybe it really wasn't and I should thank my parents for striking such a good balance. Of course, the climate in the US was much more welcoming back then. Things have changed a lot.

Ms. Angela Merkel is quite right about multi-culturalism. When a host country has to go through an amendment to scientifically based rules and regulations as shown in this article, then we all know who to blame for the failure of multi-culturalism!
Quote
Muslim nurses CAN cover up... but Christian colleagues can't wear crucifixes
Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to wear long sleeves for religious reasons - despite the risk of spreading deadly superbugs.
The Department of Health will allow female Muslim staff to opt out of a strict NHS dress code to cover their arms and protect their modesty.
But campaigners warn that the NHS is putting lives at risk because guidance that all staff should be 'bare below the elbow' was introduced after long sleeves were blamed for spreading MRSA. …
Unquote

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-519072/Muslim-medics-refuse-roll-sleeves-hygiene-crackdown--religion.html

I should have written "all-too happy". Hi Steve, I don't feel guilty at all, it's just the reality that we're dealing with. My point was that many issues around immigration wouldn't be issues but for a border being crossed. If I was a Mexican or Romanian or Nigerian struggling to feed my family, I wouldn't hesitate to cross a border to find work. My own relative prosperity is mostly an accident of geography (born in the USA) and biology - raised by parents who barely escaped the bad, old Germany and provided me with all the support I needed to make a good life. It was immigrants who helped post-war America to become the power that we are, but we thought that that anomalous period could continue forever and based our economic and social principles on perpetual growth. Germany is much better than we are at making durable stuff, so they haven't been hit as hard by the bursting bubble of an economy based on gambling, fees and sales commissions, but there isn't ever-growing demand for BMWs and Leicas, so even Germany is facing the reality of limits to growth and they haven't the social institutions (who has?) to deal with a diverse population in times of austerity. It's easier to blame brown people than to ask everybody to understand that the old way won't work forever.

Germany is facing the reality of limits to growth and they haven't the social institutions (who has?) to deal with a diverse population in times of austerity. It's easier to blame brown people than to ask everybody to understand that the old way won't work forever.
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Now you are turning this into a race thing. Only the most far right types are anti immigration. Virtually everyone understands the need for immigration, especially for countries like in Europe where the natives are not reproducing. Countries like Japan, with a declining birth rate, yet is very xenophobic and does not want immigrants at all, will have problems in the future that they will probably try to solve via robotics.

This is NOT about racism, or being anti immigration. It's about using multicultarism over assimilation. It's problematic to accept in immigrants, than not expect them to become members of the nation they immigrated to. It is THEIR Duty to learn the language, to assimilate, it is not the job of the hosts to accomodate people that came to the country to improve their lives.

If people inegrate, society is better off. having enclaves of people not assimilating is dangerous and doesn't benefit society.

It is interesting to watch the debate. This is a difficult debate in every country but especially in Germany considering its history. Every statement is very vague and there is the fear to say something wrong. The statement quoted statement about the failed multiculturalism to please the conservative wing in her party which values the importance of the Christian culture very high.

I just hope there will be no charismatic politician who "speaks the language of the people" as we have seen it here in Austria.

According to Angela Merkel's statements, Germany is confused about what it wants/expects from its immigrant populations. Indeed, Germany today has "multiculturalism" (hence it is working), however they don't have integration, which is apparently what they really want, despite not being able to identify it clearly to themselves, and therefore to the nation and its immigrants.
Integration is a function of the majority (NOT the minority.) Using the US as an example, every immigrant group since the mid-18th century has endured prejudice, job and housing restrictions, etc. until the next wave of immigrants, who looked and sounded more different than those already in the country, made the majority accept the older immigrants socially (while focusing their discrimination against the newest group.)
The fact is that Merkel's comments are an indictment of Germany's attitudes and policies that have not accepted immigrants into the fabric of its society, NOT the immigrants who enjoy the anonymity of being stuck outside and then are criticized for not adopting German ways.

I tend to agree with Max on this - there simply wasn't enough forethought given to what joining the EU would mean for a country like Germany. You don't just fling open your doors to the world and hope for the best.
We still struggle with it in the U.S. but the reason why it has worked at all isn't just the principles of our Constitution - it's the fact that, compared to any European country, America is BIG. The population of the Berlin-Brandenberg Metropolitan Area is about 5 million people with 190 nationalities. By comparison, the U.S. state of Montana, only slightly larger than all of Germany, is less than 1 million.
When Merkel says it's not working, all I want to say is, "Well, DUH!! What were you thinking?"

Yes Merkel has it right, but sadly no one is allowed to say it lest they be branded a racist which is another way for those who are being criticised to hide the fact they have done wrong and instead turn it into an attack on those who have been wronged.

Tribalism is hard wired into the human brain. We are predisposed to avoid outsiders, to connect to our own kind and such like. I ask you, where in the world has multiculturalism ever really worked? Truly? Really? Of course no where! No where in the world has there ever been any nation where the influx of outsiders been welcomed and tolerated.

The worst thing is that those whose home has been opened have absolutely no right what so ever to complain lest they be branded red necks etc. But think of it if you are in your home and someone comes along, invited or not and firstly dictates to you how you should behave in your own home or how they should be treated and completely ignore your traditions or systems of doing things, wouldn't you feel slighted? And further you have nothing to say even if those who are guests decide to destroy what you have built or change completely your home. Is that something bad.... to object to that? The worst thing yet is that you welcomed them, helped them out of a bad spot and they show such ingratitude or ruin what you and your ancestors had taken generations to build to the point where it is desired by all.

I have nothing against peoples mixing, but surely if you go to another place (hopefully not because you have ruined your home and just cant be bothered to fix that mess instead destroy someone else's home) it is up to you to fit in and not cause problems for those who built the place you want to call home, as long as they are fair to you.

The Angela Merkel is right - multi-cultruralism is not workable. When you choose to adopt another country
as your new home, you are required to learn three things about your new home :-

a) the language in which the country's laws are written
b) the law of the land
c) the culture of the country (which requires that you at least speak the language and know how to observe the law)

It would be extremely arrogant of you to require your hosts to learn the above things about your old home. For one thing they cannot do it
because they would have to learn the cultures of every immigrant in their neighbourhood, which is really asking for too much. When one country needs to learn the
culture of another, they select a small group of people and teach them the culture of the target country - such people are called deplomats and there aren't very many of them because keeping two cultures in one head is difficult and not everyone is upto it.

Another way to understand the futility of multi-culturalism is to consider a change of employer (say from Fox News to the BBC). Your new employer will have to teach you how to work as a BBC employee - that means learning and accepting the BBC's rule book. The BBC does not have to learn how they operate at Fox News - it is irrelevant
to them, and, if truth be told, is also irrelevant to you.

There should be mandatory cultural criteria for the inclusion of an individual in to a countries social system. If your a tourist or just wanting to work in a country not of your origin for six months, it may not be as important. If you move there seeking a new life, then it should be like the Dutch that have a language requirement.

It only makes sense to grow and understand the people you live near and become part of the culture. That doesn't mean give up your past, but strengthen the community that you live in. Regardless of religious beliefs, cultural differences, race or sex.

I heard Ros on Europe Today quote a Singaporean stating how multiculturism has worked well there... I beg to differ.

Forget the race riots there previously? There is a simmering tension between the 3 ethnic groups and though there is superficial attempts at getting along with each other, basically I have found my Malay friends don't associate with Chinese and Chinese don't go out of their way to mix with the local Malays and nobody really wants to mix with the Indians there. Didnt work there and the government is having a time of it to convince the locals how harmonious they are!

Angela Merkel is absolutely right in stateing with a heavy heart, multi-culturerism has "failed, uterly failed in Germany". It is a fact immigrants from areas, whereby their culture and religious asperations just do not lend themselves to wholly intergrate, their very upbringing is close to their family ties with religion as a prime factor, so much so immigrants continue to live in a way from whence they came, further they keep to a way of living by confrontation rather than assimilation in their new country of dormicile. The same is true in other countries too, The Netherlands where there has been assassinations of politicians who voiced the problems of deling with a similar situation, also other countries in Europe are realising a similar situation. Surprisingly The United States have been able for better intergration, and immigrants are more in tune with living there. In Britain, where a muslim father and son took it on themselves to kill his daughter and sister respectfully for being westernised in the way other non muslim British girls went about their daily lives, was simply forbidden in the muslim religion. Surely muslims know by moving to another country that their way of life may not be condusive to their religious teachings, and accordingly they would be better off remaining from whence they came. Europe is facing political and financial problems and face difficulty in staying united in a common purpose which includes many different cultures is a formiddable task in its self, the success of which is in the balance.

I for one feel that Muslims have a tendency to look from the outside in and make no effort to integrate with their immediate society.

I disagree with Thomas, he's making it seem like it's the german's job to accept and tolerate the dress of other cultures.. That's not it at all. People can dress in the west how they want, but the Germans don't have to like it. Recall, if German women went to Turkey or other muslim countries and dressed like they were going to Clubs, that would not be tolerated at all by those societies, let alone "approved". Why do Germans have to approve of the way immigrants dress? They are not allowed to have opinions?

Also, why is there so much noise being made out of this?it's not like Merkel is calling for the expulsion of immigrants, she's just saying that things need to change so that immigrants integrate into society. Don't forget, there are countries that do not want any immigrants, are very xenophobic, either by race or religion, and we aren't paying a bit of attention to those countries and those stories..

On the one hand, I'm downs with erasing all state borders and nation-state entities - but that is highly idealistic.
On the other hand, we have to be able to communicate, so language becomes an issue.
If I were to move to, or even visit, a non-english speaking country, I would expect - and want - to learn the language there. It seems rude and arrogant to me that people go somewhere else, especially if they are moving there, and don't learn the language. Everyone living in a country affects the dynamics, physically, economically, and culturally. If you can't speak the language of the nation you are in, what is your involvement?
I think that people should learn the language of their new home, and become part of the political system they are choosing to live in.

I hope to retire in the Netherlands and enjoy the country, like the phone in quest that has the pleasure of living their. I only get to vacation there every 2 years or so, but even that has led me to learn Nederlands using software. I'm not great at conversation yet, but I find it helps me in understanding friends I have there during conversation and even shopping.

If your going to live somewhere it's only logical to fit in for your own benefit, that of your family and as a sign of respect. If you want respect you have to give it first!

I've heard people speak positively about the US experience with immigrants relative to the European. I wonder if one reason the US is more successful absorbing immigrants is that we don't have as deep-set and narrow a culture as, well, almost everywhere else excepting our neighbors in the Americas. Immigrants can come here and feel that not only do they have to adapt to the local culture, but that the local culture can change in response to them. Obviously these adjustments aren't clean and easy, but is it possible that Europe's more rigid cultures make things more difficult?

On the other hand, most US immigration is from Mexico and other "latino" cultures. These folks have already had a major influence on the US (heck, many were here before us), and are culturally not terribly alien - and even still they're very controversial. I imagine we'd feel different if more of our immigrants came from a culture whose traditions are supposedly direct divine commandments, those traditions are divinely ordered to be enshrined in law, and many of those traditions conflict with our culture.

You'll get my tequila and carnitas burritos when you pry them from my cold dead hands!

I think she's right... our multicultural society is failing but mainly because WE have not laid it on the line what is expected of visitors and immigrants coming into a host country. Its not really that hard to fix, we just need to approach the migratory procession of humans across the world in a practical way. At the moment people are just pretty chaotic about how they deal with immigrants but really we need to get real and treat immigrants/ seasonal workers etc, etc coming into a country for whatever reason - as a business! Yeah I know that may sound odd, but so far nothing else has worked has it?
1) Scrap political correctness over ethnic integration.
2) Promote the host country Culture and Laws
3) Insist that all foreigners conform to host Countries Laws first, and their own cultural Laws second.
3) Insist on immigrants learning the language of the host country.
... I could go on because there are lots of simple yet effective things that nations can do to ensure a smoother integration and it's all pretty simple... it's called insisting on Law and Order...

Ms. Angela Merkel is quite right about the doom of multi-culturalism if the world has to face situations where the host country has to go through an amendment to scientifically verifiable and defendable rules and regulations due to religious reasons!
Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-519072/Muslim-medics-refuse-roll-sleeves-hygiene-crackdown--religion.html
When are we going to wake up to the Camel within our midst as it uses every stratagem to occupy our tents and in doing so change the very bedrock of our societies?

Mostly a question of semantics.

If multiculturalism means that a country is "balkanized," then it doesn't work anywhere. Never has.

Most who indulge in political correctness, however, usually mean "multiethnic" when they say "multicultural." In that case, with the melting pot model that has been the US model from early on, it can work. The immigrants immigrate in order to join the US culture, while also bringing in their own foods and their own traditions. So it becomes an additive process.

Of course, the traditions the new immigrants introduce have to be compatible with the new host culture in every way. We're not going to tolerate having women flogged in the streets, for example, just as we did not have to tolerate organized crime at the turn of the past century.

If distinct cultures like Turkish or Arabic have to dominate the German society, we will no more have multi-cultural or multic-ethnic societies on planet Earth. Germany belongs to Germans, France to the French, Egypt to the Copts, or even "Turkey" itself to the Greeks and Armenians. So, European multi-culturalism kills multi-culturalism in the wider world.

Germany has come a long way since since WW2. Hitler's Third Reich did not tolerate multi-culturalism.Every country has its unique culture that evolved over time. The US in many ways has been an experiment in multi-culturalism A Southern historian told me that the US Civil War was really a war fought because of the clash of two different cultures and ways of life. In the North no matter what your nationality, in order to be a part of society you had to adapt to the English-German dominant culture. In the South you had to take on the Celtic cultures dominated by the Scot-Irish immigrants who fled to the New World to escape persecution. A US senator from Virginia wrote a book entitled BORN FIGHTING about the legacy of the Scot-Irish in US. One of the most unique places in the US is Cambridge, Massachusetts. Unity in diversity has been a way of life for generations. Cambridge is known as the City of Peace.

Blaming only the immigrants is not the right way to solve the problem. I run a network that has people from all parts of the world. Everybody on the network respects all the other members' cultures, views, thoughts, opinions & religions. We all go about like a single family. If I could succeed in achieving this, surely Germany can too & all the countries in the world can do this too. First of all did Germans try to integrate with people from other cultures is the main question. They are the hosts & they should take the first step. You take one step towards people from other cultures & they will definitely take one step towards you & the process goes on. That is how integration takes place. If you say "follow us, do things in our way, respect our culture, speak only in our language", you will definitely alienate people from other parts of the world. Multi-cultured societies cannot flourish in these circumstances.

The Germans long had a monarchy which was even more down-bearing than that of Britain, then they had a so-called democracy which sent troops out on the streets to shoot at demonstrating workers. This was followed by a dictatorship which allowed only one line of thought. Today the country once more calls itself democratic although the normal citizens have little to say. Everything that happens is controlled by a small group of political parties which do not give a damn for their electorate. It is therefore not surprising, that Merkel has just woken up to the problems of integration which were known to the general public fifty years ago.

Cultural diversity is important, that is how we get to know ourselves and other countries. By these directions I prefer to say that multi-culturalism has not failed us in development.

It will be pretentious to think that people need to know about themselves only and not any other country, when these things happen we restrict ourselves to the place where we can be found.

We don't open up to others, it is better we know how diverse languages are, they are proficient to us, whiles we know about other countries, other countries know about us and our way of doing things.

We have a multicultural training program called Cultural Compass. It's all about sensitizing people to the similarities of being a human being and our values more than focusing on all the differences. When we can see how much alike we really are we become more tolerant and understanding. There is real strength in sharing our diverse talents and perspectives. Everyone wins. I believe the problem in GE is more about a lack of real integration than multiculturalism. There are many cultures in GE.


I'm curious how many real conversations are actually happening across the cultures in GE. Having said all this, I feel also that there is a certain responsibility immigrants have to make a real attempt at integrating into their host societies . . .Sometimes it can be difficult. Germans are not a people known for their warm fuzzy feelings of welcome. I say this because I am partly German and it was not until I lived there that I understood for the fist time why people sometimes thought I was a bit cold. I'm truly not but some got this impression because I am more reserved sometimes. Keep trying, it's worth it!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I don't know why my last comment is still in moderation, it makes me feel like I wasn't allowed to participate in the conversation. Anyways, as Ros said on air, I do think it is about striking a balance and understanding that at home you are free eat, speak, breathe, sing, and dance to your own culture, and a complete erasing of your own culture isn't necessary. My parents were immigrants that adapted fairly well. My grandmother never was able to master english very well, but she was very old and perhaps it was too late for her, but my father could swear in english when getting cut off in traffic as well as the next US born citizen. I was born in Chicago and loved my Chicago-style pizza, and eating loaded polish sausage for Oktoberfest, but my grandma's arroz de coco is always first in my heart.