German Chancellor Merkel has rejected calls by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to set up Turkish schools in Germany. The proposal has also been criticized by politicians and Turkish groups in Germany.
"This will not get us ahead," Merkel said in her weekly video blog on Saturday. "We want that people who over many generations live in Germany will integrate. And that means that of course they have to learn the German language and live by German laws."
Integration, she said, should not be confused with "assimilation or giving up your country of origin."
That's a stupid statement. Integration pretty much is assimilation. You can still recall your country of origin: Italians in America still think fondly of Chris Columbus, German-Americans still cook a mean dish of sauerkraut, and Chinese-Americans can celebrate the Chinese New Year. But it's not just learning the American language and living by our law, it's becoming an American. Your parents may have grown up in Delhi, but you understand our civil war. Your grandparents may have grown up in Serbia, but you freeze like the rest of us at Valley Forge. America used to demand assimilation. You became an American and gave up all the attitudes and trappings of Ye Olde Country.
That's being challenged by the doctrine of multiculturalism. We're worse off because of it. |
In an interview with German weekly Die Zeit on Thursday, Erdogan called for Turkish schools to be established in Germany. The Turkish premier said many of the 2.7 million people of Turkish origin in Germany had problems learning German.
"We have German schools in Turkey - why then can't we have Turkish schools in Germany?" he said. |