Immigration is bad, multiculturalism is doomed to fail, and Canada is basically Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn’t tend to get a lot of press in North America. In fact, if you only know her as the woman that Bush happened to grope on camera at the 2006 G8 summit, then I’m not going to hold it against you.

But the eyes of the world are on her again this week – not because another world leader made a move on her, but because she recently told a youth contingent of her own party that Germany’s attempts to create a multicultural society have “utterly failed.”

Now, there’s a juvenile point to be made here, and if you don’t mind, I’m just going to come right out and say it so we can all get it out of our systems:

If you’re going to tell a large group of people that multiculturalism has failed in your country, and you’re going to reject the notion that people of different cultures can live together in harmony, then you should probably make sure it doesn’t say “leader of Germany” on your business card. People tend to get a little antsy whenever the leader of Germany starts throwing those sorts of ideas around.

Now, that’s not the most constructive response. Hell, it’s really just a step or two above drawing Hitler mustaches on photos of world leaders. And yes, in this instance, the comparison is at least a little apt. But as usual – and troublingly, in this case – it distorts a much broader issue.

After all, Merkel wasn’t speaking in a vacuum. A recent survey indicated that more than 30% of Germans believe that their country is “overrun by foreigners,” and Merkel herself has been facing pressure from her own party to get tougher on immigrants who resist integration.

Furthermore, it isn’t fair to suggest that this sort of thing is only happening in Germany. In these tough economic times, it should come as no surprise that these flames are being fanned all over Europe and the United Kingdom. And hell, look at what’s been going on in the States.

Even in Canada, a country that’s certainly been more successful in handling immigration and fostering multiculturalism, we can see examples of this sort of talk becoming more acceptable. Writing in the Globe and Mail, columnist Margaret Wente offers an admittedly thoughtful take on Merkel’s speech. She argues that “the German political class has gone out of its way to avoid a serious debate on immigration,” and suggests that Merkel’s remarks should be taken not as an attack on immigration itself, but as an overdue acknowledgment of the German system’s failure to deal with it.

That’s a perfectly valid point, but Wente spins it into a weird cautionary tale. Despite acknowledging that “the history and composition of immigration in Canada are sharply different from the situation [in] Germany,” she goes on to draw links between the two countries and offer conclusions that would be frightening if they weren’t so unfounded.

“Like Canadians,” she says, “Germans have been swamped by official propaganda celebrating the joys of ethnic diversity. In both countries, expressing doubts over immigration policy has been socially verboten… But our tipping point is arriving too. And once it does, there’s no turning back.”

It’s a flimsy, fear-mongering argument. Sure, the Canadian government celebrates the virtues of multiculturalism. Yes, our citizens tend to get a little uncomfortable when pundits start criticizing our immigration policy, precisely because we know it’s often a slippery slope toward the demonization of certain groups of people.

But the fact that Canada and Germany have those two things in common doesn’t mean that multiculturalism is a ticking time bomb that our country needs to deal with before it’s too late. Full points to Wente for using words like “propaganda” and “verboten” to evoke more of a similarity to Germany than she can establish with facts, but her conclusions have no logical basis. You have to ignore the myriad of social, political and cultural differences she downplays if you want to make the argument work.

By the way, as long as we’re on the subject, I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders how columnists working for national newspapers are able to keep getting away with writing widely read, dialogue-defining opinion pieces claiming that it’s “socially verboten” to say the very things they’re saying. Call me crazy, but I think the medium has a way of undercutting the message on that one.

At any rate, Wente’s assertion that Merkel “merely said what most Germans already believe” is worth noting. And I don’t mean to single out Wente, because I know there are plenty of Canadians who believe what she’s saying, too. I happen to think they’re wrong, but that’s not the point.

At best, after all, Merkel’s comments amount to nothing more than a world leader saying something regrettable. Lord knows it’s happened before, and hopefully that’s all we’re dealing with in this case. Because at worst, her assertions are a symptom of troubled times ahead, and it won’t be the immigrants who are to blame for them.

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