I read an interesting article on-line today about a recent statement by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Last week, she said that Germany’s efforts to build a multi-cultural society has been a disaster. “The multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed.” Pretty strong choice of words, don’t you think?
Of course, this issue is not unique to Germany. We’re even grappling with it in good old Westminster, Maryland. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Ethnic tensions have been around forever in Europe, not just in Germany.
Our growing Hispanic population includes people who want to be fully assimilated, and others who want to live here but are not open to assimilation.