The Corpse of Multiculturalism


from Kate Flinders


In October 2010 Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying that Germany’s attempt to build a multicultural society “and to live side-by-side and then enjoy each other … has failed, utterly failed.” In 2015, at her a party convention, she said, ""Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a ‘life lie,’ ” or a sham. Then in October 2019, while speaking at a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union in Potsdam, she said, "“This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed.”

So this observation about the failure of multiculturalism was not simply an ill-advised throw-away line, blurted out in the heat of the moment. It is a well-considered view, expressed over almost ten years, from someone who has been at the heart of Germany's immigration policies. So what now? What should be done in countries where multiculturalism is failing, given that this is such an intensely debated, divisive issue? What results from parallel societies? Maybe do nothing, hope for the best, cross fingers that things will work out in this generation or the next?


Just over the Baltic Sea, Sweden has long welcomed immigrants, but the situation of the city of Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, should make us worry about this hope-for-the-best attitude. It's citizens are abandoning it because city's immigrant gangs are out of control, and the police can do nothing. Read more.



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