Multiculturalism not a happy policy in Germany

Malaysia News.Net
Saturday 16th October, 2010

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has claimed that multiculturalism has failed badly in her country.

The chancellor, taking a hard line against immigrants who have refused to learn the language and assimilate into society, announced on Saturday that the multicultural model for integration in Germany had "miserably failed."

Ms Merkel, the leader of the Christian-Democratic Union expressed her position in the ongoing debate over the integration of immigrants, especially Muslims, into German society, by saying the current situation must be changed.

The chancellor's comments were said during a speech in front of her party's youth congress, where she said she had become aware of the stormy debate over multiculturalism raging across the country.

She said while Islam was an "integral" part of modern Germany, her new position would be that immigrants should be required to integrate into society by committing to learn the German language.

At the moment, language learning is purely voluntary.

On Friday CSU Chairman Horst Seehofer made a call for Muslim immigration to Germany to stop completely.

Seehofer's declaration, in which he said: "Multiculturalism is dead," indicated a switch to the right in the ruling party's policies

Seehofer stirred a storm in an interview when he said that immigration from Turkey and the Arab countries, which he defined as "foreign cultures," must be stopped.

He added that Germany should continue to draw its values from "Judeo-Christian tradition and humanistic values."

In a survey taken in Germany during the week, it was found that more than a third of Germans supported sending immigrants back to their original homelands, even those who have been living in the country for many years.

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