Gingersnap
10-16-2010, 07:53 PM
16 October 2010 Last updated at 16:51 ET
Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
http://i54.tinypic.com/ejha21.jpg
Angela Merkel (centre) among delegates at the congress of the youth wing of the CDU in Potsdam Angela Merkel said Germany had "kidded itself" multiculturalism was working
Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.
Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.
A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".
The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.
Foreign workers
Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "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."
In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism.
Muslims read Koran in Hamburg, file pic Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration
While acknowledging that this was the case, 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".
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11559451)
Wow.
Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
http://i54.tinypic.com/ejha21.jpg
Angela Merkel (centre) among delegates at the congress of the youth wing of the CDU in Potsdam Angela Merkel said Germany had "kidded itself" multiculturalism was working
Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.
Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.
A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".
The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.
Foreign workers
Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "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."
In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism.
Muslims read Koran in Hamburg, file pic Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration
While acknowledging that this was the case, 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".
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11559451)
Wow.