(no subject)

[novapsyche]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says German multicultural society has failed

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".

Wow. Most of the time I admire Ms. Merkel, but in this instance it seems like she's trying to compete for Arizona's governorship.

Comments

[kittenkissies.livejournal.com]

Oh, Merkel was W.'s butt buddy. But I bet they have good pretzels there.

[laureth.livejournal.com]

There have been Turkish "guest workers" in Germany for many generations now (that is, the grandkids of the guest workers are still guest workers, not Germans). They are German in all but descent, but only 15 years ago did they begin to allow a trickle of these folks become German citizens. If Germans are upset about multiculturalism and want folks to integrate, I can't think of a better way to fail at this than to not really allow them to integrate and then get mad at them when they don't.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you haven't misquoted her? Your quote is contradicted by the following:

In her speech in Potsdam, however, the chancellor made clear that immigrants were welcome in Germany.

She specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany", like Christianity and Judaism.

Mrs Merkel said: "We should not be a country either which gives the impression to the outside world that those who don't speak German immediately or who were not raised speaking German are not welcome here."

She seems to be saying that integration is a two way street, and that immigrants need to make more of an effort to acculturate.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

This seems to be a world-wide trend, actually. I'm not sure where it started, but all sorts of countries and groups are starting to say, "I can *too* kick out anyone Not Like Me." Most notable for me is in bicycle racing. Five years ago, any give team of 25 riders had at least ten nationalities represented, because they were recruiting the best team, and ignoring national origins. Out of 18 teams, 6 had a national flavor.

In the past year, teams with a national flavor have exploded. There's the Danish team, two Belgian teams, a British team, a Russian team, a Kazakh team, a USA team, a USA-Swiss team, a USA-Canadian team, as well as the long-standing Italian, Spanish and French team. Next year, we get an Australian and a Luxembourgian (!) team. Oddly, the only remaining German team has disbanded.

I think it's a pendulum-swing thing, but it's scary any time people start putting an artificial thing like where one was born above natural things like who is good at what they do, and who plays well with others.