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Originally Posted by Acajack
Good question but in the modern era the two have become inextricably linked.
I wonder if it isn't because our contemporary world requires multiculturalism to keep the essential immigration train on the rails. (Moreso than in previous eras that saw for example the mass settlement of the Canadian Prairies by primarily non-WASP immigrants, for example.)
That might be why multiculturalism as a dogma has crept up in surprising places like Western Europe. (Even though Angela Merkel has opined that it might be a "failure".)
I mean, I love Istanbul and all. It's one of the most fascinating places. But does Germany really need to import Turkish (or any other) foreign in order to be culturally rich and interesting?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut5S6C3GQi0
I mean, I realize that foreign influences have been taking root in established societies since way before anyone had ever heard of the term "multiculturalism". (Germans for example have been eating currywurst with curry ketchup for quite some time, I gather...  )
I just don't understand the basis for the sense of urgency to move all of this along at breakneck speed now, and the hostility that meets any talk of easing up on the accelerator a bit. |
The answer, imho, would be "obviously no", but the Turkish immigration to Germany was a purely economic migration - I don't understand why one would even refer to German culture in that context, although I assume Turks living in Germany do have an effect on German culture. It's not something I pay much attention to, but I've never seen anything to suggest that anybody in Europe really "gets" multiculturalism as a mechanism for integration.
I'm also not clear on what/where you are referring to as "breakneck speed". In Canada's case, we've been multicultural by government policy for almost half a century and by law for thirty years (and, I would suggest, we were de facto "multiculturalish" for decades before that).