Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel: Multiculturalism a Failure
Angela Merkel, Germany’s head of state has stated her opinion of “multikulti”,or multiculturalism in unusually blunt terms, referring to it as “an utter failure” The BBC quotes Chancellor Merkel as follows.
“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.”
Chancellor Merkel stressed that she was not against immigration, or making efforts to integrate foreigners into German society noting that “That would do great damage to our country.”
Merkel focused in her speech on the need of immigrants to learn German and to integrate into German society. A greater frequency of crime and welfare dependency among immigrants in Germany has fueled frustration and resentment among Germans. By tapping into widely voiced frustration, Merkel undoubtedly hoped to take the hot button issue of immigration away from Germany’s extreme right and to deal with it in a firm and lawful manner.
Merkel’s remarks mirror the experience of other countries in Western Europe such as France, where immigrants are often likely to be involved in crime, lack fluency in the national language and suffer from higher rates of unemployment.This in turn fuels rightist extremism among native Europeans and Islamic extremism among immigrants, many of whom come from Muslim nations.
Germany’s frustration with immigration has been fueled by the country’s reunification in 1990. At that time cumbersome communist enterprises were restructured or eliminated, creating depression levels of unemployment in Eastern Germany. This in turn fueled resentment of unemployed Eastern Germans towards immigrants who came to Germany during better times. Even after 20 years of German unity, divisions exist in German society not only between immigrants and native Germans but between Western Germans and Eastern Germans.
European nations influence each other’s political discourse. Other nations in Europe have also had spirited debate about the role of immigration in shaping and influencing their societies. Additionally, low birth rates across Europe have created a cycle in which immigrants are necessary to maintain the size of the work force.
Merkel’s blunt assessment is not a blanket condemnation of foreigners, but a call for behavior and expectations that would facilitate their integration into German society. It is significant that Merkel speaks not from the margins of German politics but as the head of its ruling party. There is little doubt that her views will be heard beyond Germany’s borders in neighboring countries with similar problems.
