If Europe’s big test in 2015 was the refugee crisis, integrating the newly arrived will be 2016’s. This will require the type of Wir schaffen das (we can do it) message that German chancellor Angela Merkel has been sending out.
The refugee crisis has highlighted a historical fact: Europe’s cultural, ethnic and religious diversity will increase in a transformative way in the years and decades to come. Which makes it a good time also to open a healthier more cool-headed debate about our collective identity.
.... Is there a way to explore the notion of being “hyphenated Europeans” – Turkish-German, Algerian-French or Asian-British, just as one can be African-American or Italian-American? Diversity, as experienced across Europe, by Europeans and non-Europeans alike, is the next looming horizon. It is a compelling, gripping transformation – a story that we are all part of, and one we should start talking about in new ways. [Natalie Nougayrède, 1727 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 522 votes] I have read some deluded and out of touch articles in the Guardian, but this one is written by someone whose bubble is so thick it could never be burst,
"Saying that migrants, whatever their cultural background, must abide by laws as much as be protected by them, may be stating the obvious but it also raises sensitivities and should therefore be part of that debate."
No, it should not be part of a debate - and don't try to kid us with vague statements within an article that effectively says refugees and migrants should do as they please and indigenous populations should do whatever they can to make them welcome.
Multiculturalism can only work if two cultures are compatible - if one is centuries less mature than the other it will not and cannot work.
If the UK continues to invite people from some of the most backward countries in the world the people already living and paying taxes in the UK have every right to expect these new peoples to live by the rules of the UK.
What the author is advocating is exactly how the Rotherham scandal was allowed to evolve. It is why backward hate preaching was/is allowed. It is why sexism is so rife in society.
[2ND 503] There isn't a single practical suggestion made here, just lots of buzzwords and no explanation as to why diversity is intrinsically a good thing. Homogenous countries such as Japan and South Korea are doing perfectly well. Why do only European countries need to be 'enriched' in larger numbers year on year, regardless of the wishes of their citizens?
"Why is it that those who help refugees in Calais have so few organised contacts with those who do the same in Berlin?"
What should they be doing, practically speaking? Those in Calais are in a safe developed country and have a simple economic preference for Britain. They certainly aren't going to qualify for asylum in Germany. I suppose the diversity they bring will have to enrich France for now, but should have benefited any of the safe countries they passed through to get there.
"Or that virtually no one from liberal west European circles has engaged with those, Hungarians and others, who have become convinced their nation is being “swamped”?
Why aren't Hungarians entitled to self-determination - something I'm sure you would support for any non-European nation? They look at the cities in western Europe which have been subject to high immigration and decide they don't want the same for Hungary. That is their right. Why should they be patronised by these 'liberal west European circles', whoever they are?
[3RD 368] Might it not also be the breaking of Europe ?
So far it's difficult to see the argument for increased diversification. There's enough chaos as it is
[4TH 328] Europe was not built upon Islamic or Hindu or African cultures but a European culture through to the highest points of Christianity. And from there towards the secular liberal western present day. The absurdity is this free liberal western system now infected with "cultural Marxism" opens the doors to cultures which will close it down. It must not and a rejection of the left position on this is inevitable.
[5TH 312] Why not give democracy a go and hold an EU wide referendum on how much immigration its population would like to see?
I suspect because the answer would be 'drastically less'.
You're afraid of democracy. The EU machine is terrified and enraged by it. [Guardian Cif] Read more
