The BBC reports:
Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed”, Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
She said the so-called “multikulti” concept – where people would “live side-by-side” happily – did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate – including learning German.
The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.
A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country 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 its social benefits.
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.”
She added: “We kidded ourselves a while, we said: ‘They won’t stay, sometime they will be gone’, but this isn’t reality.”
Angela Merkel took pains to say immigrants are welcome.
The words “utterly failed” are very strong, but there are also nuanced messages about the usefulness of immigrants in a country that needs skilled labour.
She is pitching it very carefully, with important elections coming up in the spring.
The tone is very important.
The chancellor is basically saying that Germany needs immigrants but immigrants need to do something to get into the society.
“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.”
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