Is Multiculturalism a “Failure”?
image via religionnerd.com
by Shannon Dulaney
At a meeting with the younger members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her doubts about “multikulti” (multiculturalism) in Germany over the last 50 years, saying that “this multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed.” In a country with 4.3 million Muslims—the majority of them from Turkish descent—her speech has been largely interpreted as a blanket criticism of Turkish immigrants’ failure to meaningfully integrate into German society. Her comments have sparked a flurry of news coverage, from BBC News and The Guardian to CNN and Russia Today. The blogosphere is jumping in too, with Alex Moore asking, “Is [declaring multiculturalism a failure] even an option in the 21st century?”
In reading through these articles, I was struck by the contextual complexity of Ms. Merkel’s speech: while some of the things she said triggered me and my (admittedly white, American, liberal) sensibilities, she is not talking in a vacuum. Indeed, she is speaking about issues that have been the proverbial elephant in the room of European politics for some time: immigration, integration, and culture. While the phrase “utterly failed” as a sound bite was surely a political misstep, she has other, much more productive things to say that are going largely unnoticed.
In Germany specifically, these issues have recently come to the fore with inflammatory comments from a variety of German officials, including Thilo Sarrazin and Horst Seehofer, and a recently published report from the Friedrich Ebert foundation which found that “more than 30% of people questioned agreed that Germany was ‘overrun by foreigners’, while a similar number said they believed that some immigrants had only come to Germany to take advantage of its social welfare, and therefore ‘should be sent home when jobs are scarce’. “ These issues and questions are complex, and there is a necessary dialogue being buried by headlines that trumpet “Angela Merkel declares death of German multiculturalism,” thus emphasizing the sensationalistic at the cost of an honest appraisal of the issues at hand.
What do you think of Chancellor Merkel’s recent comments? Do you agree with her assessment that multiculturalism has “failed”? Why or why not? What does “multiculturalism” as an overriding concept mean for Europe in the 21st century? Where is the common ground between assimilation and maintaining cultural differences? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Check out my opinion piece!
http://infiniteculture.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/the-end-of-multiculturalism-2/
Angela Merkin (speaking of “Turkey”) is a dolt. It’s recklessly irresponsible of her and totally devoid of wisdom to say such tripe given the reailites of today’s social and political environment. The reality is you have a population of CITIZENS (not immigrants) who are living NOW in Germany. How is it at all sensible to make such an inflammatory, idioitc statement, how is that going to help things? What do you intend to do with all those poeple who rightfully have maintained ties to their culture? Are people such morons? Is it so hard to accept and tolerate .
Nationalism is an infantile, ridiculous, old school notion, one that I hoped was dead, apparently nothing is dead as long as you got these Dr. Frankenstein morons in the world to ressurect them. Why talk of a “german dominant culture” like it’s still the 19th century? though coined in and resurged in the new global age of the 19th century, the core idea of nationalism goes back to a barbaric ancient time, you know, when people were thrown to lions for cheering entertainment. That kind of time. How is “nationalism” even relevent in the 21st century. Cutlure can have no bounds if you let it, it doesn’t have to be boxed into political boundaries. People can live in one place and have ties to another place, and the white people in Germany can be proud of their own heritage too, it’s that simple. Is that so hard to agree with?
Maybe we need to teach children in the public education system early on not to be xenophobic towards other cultures; teach them that it’s a stupid and barbaric idea; teach that it doesn’t take anything away from you to allow others who weren’t orignally from here decades or centuries ago to practice and respect their own cultures; teach them that they came here in the first place because where they lived was a miserable hellhole (politcally and economically) and decided reasonably that it wasn’t right that they should be barred from the peace and prosperity that was being enjoyed by those farther north. Teach that it is virtue to respect others,from the personal level to the cultural level. The “others” should also be taught these things. Would this not be reasonable?
To bad Merkin and everyone else who buys this fat, rotting piece of red meat didn’t receive such an education. One wonders what education she and the other desperate dolts did receive