Diversity also seems to be failing in France (Roma/Burka), USA (Arizona/WTC mosque), Britain (Rise of anti-immigration parties) and Holland (Geert Wilders).

Should Australia continue to have multiculturalism as its top domestic policy as comparable nations begin to move towards a more united, patriotic and traditional focus?

http://www.smh.com.au/world/multiculturalism-in-germany-has-failed-says-chancellor-20101017-16p7h.html?autostart=1

I think the governments of these nations failed multiculturalism. Facist political correctness has got in the road of common sense and the national identity.

TRUTHNOW78,
again, Germany's vision is generations ahead of the rest. We'll probably experience yet another ganging up against her by the clever Allieds who constantly promote doomed social engineering. Shouldn't be too long before we see signs (literally) to that effect here.

Migrant people have AU born kids. These kids are no different than any one else are they.
I will say that islamic people would be better off in their own safe country. They have mingling issues, which don't seem to go away.

It is easy to understand the glee with which Chancellor Merkel's (translated) remarks have been received by the xenophobes. After all, she is only saying what they have been saying for so long, isn't she?

Well, isn't she?

Perhaps not. Or not entirely.

Germany has not been the world's friendliest destination for foreigners over the years. For quite some time, the bulk of immigrants were Turkish Gastarbeiter, the literal translation of which is "guest worker".

(Significantly, its predecessor term was Fremdarbeiter, "foreign worker", used to describe the slave labour imported during WWII.)

They were allowed to work there - in the menial jobs, of course - but were not expected to hang around. This was prevalent in the 60s and 70s, as Germany went through its major post-war expansion.

These folk (there were other national groupings as well as Turks) tended to live in the same neighbourhood. Hardly surprising, since their presence was barely tolerated by the natives.

So in her own language, and to her own people, Merkel was saying that history showed that this approach has not worked. In other words, her definition of "Multikulti" and, say Boaz' definition of "multi-culti" are like chalk and cheese.

Germany has never attempted to implement policies that favour immigrants. In fact, they have actively rejected any such approach. So their admission of failure is an acceptance that they should, actually, be doing more, rather than less, to help immigrants integrate into German society. And in doing so, reduce racial and religious tensions.

The other side of the coin is that she took the opportunity to point out that she and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan had each pledged to do more to improve integration of the Turkish communities.

And one of the measures was for both the Mr Erdogan, and President Abdullah Gul, to urge them all to learn German.

Sensible policy. But describing this, as TRUTHNOW78 does in the opening post as "diversity... seems to be failing" is patently inaccurate.

Pericles... whatever you do, don't mention 'the war'.

I must say that I was wondering how the great German experiment in social cleansing would fit into her statement but does this count as a Godwins Law example?

But what about the French and their Gypsy purges today?

And when I go to the UK they are all up in arms about the Poles 'taking all the work' (but at least Poles turn up to do it, unlike the natives there).

I'm not convinced that Australia is really a happily multi-cultural nation either, once the official hooplah about it is overlooked.