I was surprised as anyone with the announcement by Angela Merkel that multiculturalism was a failure.  The internal pressures she must have been facing must have been enormous as one would think that changing an official program of multiculturalism could be done without such grandiose announcements.

“Germany’s chancellor says attempts to create a multicultural society in the country have “utterly failed.”

Angela Merkel said Saturday that the concept that different cultures can live happily side by side does not work”

Well at least not in the way it has been working in Germany?  Canada is a multicultural country and it seems to work pretty well here.  There are differences though, but one would think that Germany, being a strong secular democracy, could reasonably accommodate immigrants of any stripe.

“She stressed that immigrants need to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.

Merkel’s comments came as Reuters news agency said she is facing pressure from within the party to take a stronger stance on immigrants who don’t appear willing to integrate into German society”

This seems announcement seems to be going hand in hand with the growing levels of immigration from Islamic countries.  I would have to say that if you are immigrating to a country it would be responsible on your behalf to take up said countries laws and customs.  The secular rule of law is non-negotiable when it comes to integrating into a new society.

“Immigration issues have become a hot topic, and a recent survey by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank indicated more than 30 per cent of Germans believe the country is “overrun by foreigners.”

We will have to watch Germany carefully to see exactly what sort of response the government has in store.  Will it be xenophobic nationalism or a clearer definition of  what immigrating to Germany means, something in between?