Daily Lessons from Life 17 October 2010 - Chancellor Merkel says German bid at multi-cultural society has failed

Channel NewsAsia "Chancellor Merkel says German bid at multi-cultural society has failed - 17 October 2010

BERLIN: Germany's attempts to create a multi-cultural society in which people from various cultural backgrounds live together peacefully have failed, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday.

'Multikulti', the concept that 'we are now living side by side and are happy about it,' does not work, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam near Berlin.

'This approach has failed, totally,' she said.

Yet at the same time, the Head of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Germany is losing 1% growth due to the lack of 400k engineers and 'qualified' workers!!

Still, the recent survey of 2,411 people by a Jewish Foundation in Germany revealed prevailing far-right attitudes! 52% believed the 4m Muslims in Germany should have their religious practice severely curtailed! 32% said foreigners should be sent home if there is a lack of job! And 34% believed the 16m immigrants are here for the social benefits!!"

1st of all for the Leader of Mrs Merkel status to concede defeat is a BIG DEAL!! 2nd Germany is unique in that it has a history of treating badly foreigners, especially the Jews, during WWII. So, it is like tough on raw nerve!!

Lessons for me are:

1. the responses on the job front and the 'here for the social benefits' are easily understandable. Self-interest comes 1st if you speak about being a citizen of A Country! As to the 'here of the social benefits' claim, it needs to be back up by evidence. If the evidence is there, the opinion is fact based. It does drain resources form the nation!;

2. the response on 'religious freedom' is touchy. We need to dig deeper. What specifically are the objections that DO NOT fit into German's culture and society? E.g. the burqa and the veil - the ex-Australian PM, John Howard, famously, or infamously, depending on your view, said that: if the immigrants want to come to Australia, they follow the Australian way! So, if veils are not acceptable, the Muslims will need to adjust or go somewhere else since they wanted to come to the new nation. This is acceptable rationally but is not emotionally especially when one throw up the big card called: Right to practice Religious Freedom!;

3. I am not sure if this is the start of the rising tide of anti-immigrants in Germany. This sentiment is played out everywhere where the host country is facing high unemployment and the 'old' citizens are squeezed out by ever cheaper immigrant workers! Singaporeans cried fouls too though the government insisted that the immigrant workers did not marginalized 'existing' citizen chance of finding good paying jobs!

Each time I read about such a situation, I know there root cause is: If you cannot feedback your own citizens in the first place, there is no place to have a generous immigration policy. The puzzling part for Germany though is that claim of lacking 400k engineers and qualified workers! Did Mrs Merkel's government fell asleep at the Human Capital Development arena or that there were simple too many jobs chasing too few bodies!!