Multicultural society has failed - Merkel

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utt-erly failed”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Her comments are feeding a growing debate over how to deal with millions of foreigners who call the country home.

Mrs Merkel told a meeting of young members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union that while immigrants were welcome in Germany, they must learn the language and accept the country’s cultural norms.

“This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed,” Mrs Merkel said.

Mrs Merkel’s comments were met with applause by the more conservative members of her Christian Democratic party.

Germany and other European countries have grappled with the idea of themselves as immigration nations and Mrs Merkel has long been sceptical of the country’s attempts to build a multicultural society that includes its estimated five million Muslims.

Many immigrants speak little or no German, work in low-paying jobs or live off government handouts while the country faces an ageing population and a shortage of highly skilled workers.

“Germany needs more qualified immigration to maintain its economic advantage and deal with the demographic developments,” Volker Beck, a politician with the opposition Greens party.

Mrs Merkel acknowledged in her comments that then-West Germany in the 1960s opened its doors to Turkish labourers who helped the nation rebuild from the ruins of the World War II.

Yet German politicians be-lieved those labourers would eventually return home. Instead, many have stayed and their children’s children are now starting families in Germany.