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Merkel: German multiculturalism failed
[Iran Press TV] German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country has totally failed to create a society where various cultural backgrounds can live peacefully.The concept that "we are now living side by side and are happy about it," does not work, Merkel told a Christian Democrats meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin on Saturday. "This approach has failed, totally," AFP quoted her as saying. The German official warned against growing "immigration that weighs down on our social system." She further stressed that Germany needs specialists from other countries to continue its economic development. A recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think tank shows that more than one third of Germans believe "foreigners should be sent home when jobs are scarce." The German chamber of commerce, however, has recently announced that the country is in urgent need of 400,000 engineers and qualified workers. In a speech marking 20 years of German unity on Saturday, German President Christian Wulff said Mohammedans had become "a part of Germany." Merkel recalled the comments, urging immigrants already living in Germany to do more to integrate into society. During a meeting in Berlin on October 9, Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's 2.5mn-strong Turkish minority. Germany plans to use celebrations in October 2011 for the 50th anniversary of a key immigration agreement on "Gastarbeiter" (guest workers) between Germany and Turkey to "take stock," Merkel said after talks with Erdogan. "We propose that everywhere in cities and towns where there are people of Turkish origin, we use this event as a way of taking stock and seeing where we are and what has to be done," she told news hounds. Posted by: Fred 2010-10-18 |
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