Merkel: German multiculturalism has 'utterly failed'

"A European Championship football qualifier between Germany and Turkey last week reflected built-up tensions. Star Germany player Mesut Oezil, who is of Turkish heritage, was whistled and booed throughout the game by Turkey fans—who outnumbered German supporters in Berlin’s Olympic stadium."

Imagine the reaction, the howls of 'racism' if a German player on a Turkish team playing in the same venue was hounded by his fellow Germans like this.

Tim, that's because we all know it's only white people of European decent to be racist. It's been beaten into our heads.

Wow. I was waiting for JT to include this on the site. Unfortunately, it is missing the most pertinent bit from the AP story, about immigrants meeting certain responsibilities in terms of learning the language, etc.

For people living in Japan, Merkel's speech is a wake up call. Don't expect that being a guest is some kind of right. Foreigners who support the community and learn the language will always be welcome. The others, not so much.

Merkel is saying that the "hosts" have utterly failed in their attempts to solve all problems that have occurred because of their accomodation of "guests". If the guests can't make a better effort to meet the hosts halfway, it is a failure.

I can see that. The Euro-guilt had to end sooner or later.

Merkel is an dummkoph! Germans have invaded countries all over the world, just look at TEXAS!!! I have to say they, they do have nice beer and great cars!

Interesting timing. Is Merkel's comment meant to accompany the not guilty verdict the Netherlands has made in the bogus 'hate speech' case brought against Geert Wilders?

This is the new tendency in Europe. When the economy is bad and u r facing many social and other problems, if u want to get elected play the bad immigrants card! Immigrants,immigrants and always immigrants. Maybe everybody should stay in his country and every country closes itself to others then no more immigrants to blame.

As an American I am ashamed of how we now play the immigration card when times are hard. When in fact it was with the blood and sweat of immigrants and forced immigrants (slaves) that largely built our country to the power it became.

Europe used the Turkish labor to rebuild, now wants to blame their problems on immigrants. I guess they have forgotten that the post depression era in Germany's late 1930's found scapegoats for that time's problems too. Look where that led.

We need to stop viewing the world as a series of divided pockets and start thinking realistically about the global nature of human lives today. And from that perspective, solve our problems together.

quite out of touch, I have friends in German of non-German descent having a fine time. What is she babbling about? Most people integrate

"""So, let us not be blind to our differences -- but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.""" JFK

As an American I am ashamed of how we now play the immigration card when times are hard.

I doubt Merkel is influenced by what you imagine is US policy on immigration. I don't see what it has to do with Merkel's assessment of the failure of multi-culturalism.

There are elements of Merkel's speech that make sense. If someone comes over to your house and starts living there, you would expect them to abide by certain rules that you have already set in place. If the person just eats your food, doesn't communicate, and does no housework, it's understandable how you might feel upset. That being said, you shouldn't expect the person to suddenly be a member of your family simply for having become a roommate; there are middle grounds. And likewise perhaps some of the house rules can be rethought.

smithinjapan,

its not quite the same as what u r saying.Merkel is doing all this show to please the right-wing and its voters. The immigrants there speak German and do the "housework" as u said. She is just following the radicalization tendency in Europe. After asking for immigrants to build their country they want to throw them away pretexting they r not integrating because it's a classic to blame the immigrants when the economy is sinking and the job rate is low.Classic politician maneuver.

One of the main issues in Europe, with regard to immigration, is that in larger cities there are these neighborhoods which are virtually like a a country within a country. They are semi-self contained, and there isn't a mixing with the native population. It's not so much they are a "a little turkey or a little odessa or a little krakow, that's fine. It's that second third generations are not integrating with the general population.

So, it seems that she is saying, along with other politicians, is that multi-culti is not working as envisioned and that it may be that integration would work better with regard to large-scale immigration. The view that many diverse cultures living side by side would result in rainbows and puffy clouds seems to have been a misjudgment.

In the US, it seems like it has taken two to three generations for people to get out the ghetto and join the leitkultur. However, there may be more incentive (not as much welfare to cling to) to leave the ghetto and it may be easier (not stigmatized) in the US than in the EU.

Tim, you often don't see the bigger picture. Immigration and multi-culturalism are not problems limited to Germany. They are issues in much of the world. Why? Because the world is now a global village and no longer a series of isolated ethnio-cultural groups.

Germany's failures are similiar to those in America or any other country. Immigrant groups fall into low income categories and labor there behind language and culture barriers. Mexican and other populations in the US have the same problems. As do some groups in Japan.

You need to see the forest and not just the one tree mate.

Germany's failures are similiar to those in America or any other country. Immigrant groups fall into low income categories and labor there behind language and culture barriers.

Germany's failures? How about Turkey? How about your irrelevant example of Mexico?

Tim, what is your point? You clearly can't see that Germany's failures in this area are instructive for any country facing these issues. Nothing that you can learn from is irrelvant. Get it?

It is not Germany that has failed. As Merkel points out, "multi-culturalism" is one big FAIL.

As an American I am ashamed of how we now play the immigration card when times are hard.

LOL! completely wrong. The issue in the US is about ILLEGAL immigrants, not legal ones.

As for Germany, it is not about immigration but about assimilation.

Finally, there are cultures and religions that cannot be integrated or coexist with each other. Germany started to understand it, at last.

Tim. multi-culturalism can and does work. New York City is a stellar Example. London another. And many, many other centers where diverse cultures have come together to cooperate.

Assimilation needs to be realistic. In one or two generations of immigrants you cannot expect full assimilation if the immigrant society is too outside the mainstream.

Take a Korean or Japanese family moving to Seattle. Both commuities have strong cultural communities but are not isolated from mainstream society. So second generation children are indistriguishable from kids with longer Seattle roots.

Take groups that are less integrated, more separated by economic walls and you will find they do not assimilate as quickly anywhere in the world. We see this with poor Hispanic immigrant communities in the US. And refugee communities elsewhere.

Assimilation is only possible with substantial integration. That means job creation, education, social and community outreach and less segregation from mainstream society.

Where people mix and thrive, assimilation and cooperation is not an issue. And yet we see and benefit from the presense of unique ethnic cultures within a society.

This is the real forest that should get attention. Merkel is looking for a scapegoat. And who better than immigrants to be painted as the problem.

multi-culturalism can and does work. New York City is a stellar Example

how does it work in nyc? it is multi-cultural, but i wouldn't say it "works"... lol

Merkel is looking for a scapegoat. And who better than immigrants to be painted as the problem.

EXACTLY!

the race card is never the answer. got that, democrats?

manfromamerica.

How does it work in NYC? You have a rich fabric of ethnic communities who each bring their special qualities to the nature and feeling of NY. Their contributions make that city the diverse cultural center that it is. It contributes to creativity, cullinary arts, music, spirituality, language and the cultural textures that define NY.

Why don't you try telling me why it doesn't work, because the fact that NY is so prominent world wide suggests very strongly that it not only works but empowers the city.

Germany’s attempts to build a multicultural society had “utterly failed”

MULTICULTURALISM is DEAD!

THE MULTICULTURAL DOCTRINE has failed, and-- ironically-- the new wave of anti-immigrant, far-right political parties like that in Netherland, Denmark and the UK are nothing more than by-products of the multicultural doctrine and state-sanctioned 'political correctness' that's suppose to protect people of 'other races, beliefs and religions'.

The multicultural lobbyists-- these dodo incognitos whose idea of 'immigration' deduces The Immigrant as a pack of slave-workers, with the main purpose of augmenting National Revenues with remittances. And a group which the Liberal Left have emphatically embraced not so much purposefully but superficially as to say 'we are Multicultural'... and we need you come Election Day!

BUT NOW IN EUROPE, people like Merkel have decided it's time to label The Doctrine as failure (for it is a failure that needed to be buried, not reconstructed) AND for Wilders and the next-Gens of European far-right, it's all about the numbers, not the message. Yet there will be some, within the establishment, that will shrugg off everything, and they will still insist on 'politically correctness' and the multicultural doctrine; somehow failing to grasp that the far-right puzzle, at its core, is pretty basic and simple... and that the utter failure of the Multicultural Doctrine is theirs in the first place!

Hey

New York City is a stellar Example. London another. And many, many other centers where diverse cultures have come together to cooperate.

Many, many others? How come the multi culti crowd can only cite cities in what we all recognize are culturally Christian or 'Western' nations? And dont try and tell me Dubai or Beijing or even Tokyo 'work' in the same way London and NY do - - foreigners have not been allowed to immigrate to those places in numbers of any significance, only to come as employees of multi nats or in lesser standing.

Well, surprise, surprise. It turns out that Frau Merkel and her conservative friends are Nazis at heart. But they are polite Nazis. They don't go in for the cruder forms of Nazism, like denying the Holocaust, which is illegal; nor do they go around saying things like "Foreigners Out!" They probably don't even make Turk jokes. But Merkel let the cat out of the bag by saying, "Multiculturalism" hasn't worked in Germany. It's like Bill O'Reilly saying that building the Islamic center near Ground Zero is "inappropriate."

Merkel is not only a Nazi in her heart of conservative hearts, she is also wrong.

Immigration has been an integral part of Germany's Economic Wonder. It is also providing population to a country whose citizens have a low birth rate (like Italy and Japan).

Okay, while immigrants should learn German (many know English, as do most educated Germans) and German norms (a number of which we can do without, like the those notorious German screaming matches) the Germans have got to get rid of its residual racism, which you will find primarily in the provinces.)

Merkel's remark sound neutral, seemingly scientific. But what she has said is dangerous. It is as dangerous as any of the Nazis pronouncements, like Ein folk, ein Reich. The Nazi exterminators spoke in neutral terms as they sent millions of innocent people to gas chambers and firing squads.

Same problem here in Switzerland. Over 20% foreigners (most of them from another culture) are too much and politicians start to rethink about the situation. You don't have to be a nazi to see, that different cultures can't live together, especially if the foreign culture will not even try to integrate itself. I like the thinking to share my country with other people of the world, but too much will turn it into a negative story (criminality etc.)...

Of course, when economy was good and country was in need of workers, nobody did care if they speak language, if they respect rules etc, but now when economic situation is bad, they are complaining about “ bad immigrants”. This is a good example how hypocrite politicians are.

Ms. Merkel should learn something from the new Roman Catholic Pope, who is also German, try to learn from Jesus, try to learn from Michael Moore! Germany is just 1 country in the world and there are German communities all over the world, in my native Mexico, etc...we get along just fine, but this mess about multiculturalism failing is SHISSA?? Pardon my French.

Well, surprise, surprise. It turns out that Frau Merkel and her conservative friends are Nazis at heart.

NAZI stood for "National Socialist." You couldnt be any wider of the mark.

Well, you invite large quantities of foreigners, tell them they are supposed to return to their home countries later, don't care whether and how their children learn the local language, don't care when those children drop out of school, keep all kind of barriers to naturalization and then you complain that these people do not integrate? This is not a failure of "multiculturalism" (whatever that would mean anyway), but pure hypocrisy. And may I guess that the party which was responsible for all of that mess was Merkel's own party?

Can't believe the hard right wing, xenophobic posts in this thread. One would think that many of you have never been outside Wyoming to see cities that are clearly international and funcational with many cultures at work.

In the US NY, SF, LA and nearly every other major city show that communities of diverse cultures can and do live in harmony. Nearly every major European city is an example. While politicians may site the problems over the much less headline interesting reality, most cities have and do get by just fine with multi-cultural profiles.

London, Paris and nearly every other major city in Europe. Russia and her dozens of ethnic groups get on fine in most of her major cities.

Where people are allowed to participate in the community, in commerce and in society they can and do adjust to their new homes. While at the same time preserving their own unique identities and contributing to the interesting fabric of many of the world's largest and most dynamic cities.

For the right wing anti-multiculturealists on this thread. You are no better than China in this thinking. They wish to erradicate all minority cultures in favor of a uniform culture where everyone thinks and follows in line. Is that what you advocate? Because that is frightening to consider that the world's cities or countries should be mono-cultural. When the world and global commerce is clearly multi-culturual. It isn't 1936 any more and the ethnic folk are no longer on the reservation. We are everywhere and you had better get used to and learn to benefit from the multi-cultural world you live in.

For the right wing anti-multiculturealists on this thread. You are no better than China in this thinking. They wish to erradicate all minority cultures in favor of a uniform culture where everyone thinks and follows in line. Is that what you advocate? Because that is frightening to consider that the world's cities or countries should be mono-cultural. When the world and global commerce is clearly multi-culturual. It isn't 1936 any more and the ethnic folk are no longer on the reservation. We are everywhere and you had better get used to and learn to benefit from the multi-cultural world you live in.

LOL!!! you couldn't be farther off the mark.

In America: Immigration = good. Illegal immigration = bad. In Germany: they want immigrants who contribute to German society.

...most cities have and do get by just fine with multi-cultural profiles. London, Paris and nearly every other major city in Europe.

Huh? The article is about the leader of the economic powerhouse of Europe declaring that multiculturalism has failed. Paris has a ban on burqas, in case you missed that one. Northern Europe, the most "liberal" region on the planet, has seen a shift to the right in its politics. Holland, long considered the most tolerant country in Europe, just acquitted leader of its 3rd biggest party of hate speech charges in one of the most important court cases in modern Europe.Try as you might you cannot link any of this to George Bush or believe you have explained it away with the usual silly socialist class analysis deployed in trying to understand "what is wrong with Kansas."

Things have changed in Europe and it is time to cut the crap and examine certain realities on the ground.

Russia and her dozens of ethnic groups get on fine in most of her major cities.

Are you sure on that one? I think you pulled it out of the same silly hat from which you get your ideas about Europe.

You are left with LA and New York. I suppose then, that you are making the argument that Germany needs to be more like the US.

But Germany is not America.

Europe is not America.

Because America was in many respects a blank state, a new start for mankind.

In fact, it seems to me that true 'multi-culturalism', since we are at a completely new scale of immigration and dislocation would be to demand either a complete moratorium on immigration or something akin to establishment of regional/ideological parity in certain key areas, though this would face violent opposition from any country/religion Germany/ Europe demanded this of.

No more attempts by Germany to "accommodate" Turks if they are not going to respect the laws and customs of Germany.

Likewise, no more Mohammedan houses of worship in the xtian west if Saudi Arabia and Muslim nations are going to enforce Sharia and forbid the building of new churches and synagogues or the repair of existing ones. Enough is enough.

In the US NY, SF, LA and nearly every other major city show that communities of diverse cultures can and do live in harmony. Nearly every major European city is an example. While politicians may site the problems over the much less headline interesting reality, most cities have and do get by just fine with multi-cultural profiles.

The whole Multicultural Experience dare I say is farcical-- Having deduced The Immigrant as part of a doctrine, with its Members of Ethnicity having to contend seeing wannabe Leaders on television sets everytime there's a contention of sort.... whether regarding ethnic gangs and drug leaders, or The Leader taking a pissing contest everytime the Doctrine is under attack from The Mainstream or Some Far-Right "Neo Nazi" leader (which unfortunately, it seems and acc. to some posters in this thread, now includes the German MERKEL).

But why are The Liberal Left (these White Libs) somehow afraid that without Multiculturalism these Ethnic Masses would somehow abate and decay? Or perhaps they're more afraid of the Consequences... that the Ethnic Masses fed up of being marked as pure Ethnic for the convenience of it would all of a sudden decide... enough is enough, and the fear of being quite incompetent without The Doctrine is entirely bogus.

Hail, Frau MERKEL! And it's good, finally, you've decided to abandon this dour Doctrine for your people... as we have here in AUSTRALIA!