German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made some waves with her recent comments on multiculturalism and immigration, which Israeli National News summarizes in an article that explores the broader, continental implications of untrammeled immigration to Europe from the third world.
Merkel’s statements come in the wake of a recent European Commission critique of her neighbor’s decision to forcibly disband illegal gypsy encampments and begin deportations of Roma to Bulgaria and Romania. But as much as this ongoing story has captured the imagination of the news media in both Europe, and to a much lesser extent, North America, the real problem posed to Europe’s future comes from the Arab-Muslim and Turkic world, which-as Chancellor Merkel says-is now part of Europe.
Although her implicit criticism of the post-war gastarbeiter program that brought in Turkish workers-and eventually, their extended families-in order to perform temporary labor is a welcome relief from the usual drivel mouthed about multiculturalism’s successes, it still doesn’t seem to address the fundamental incompatibility between a secular, Westernized European culture and a culture that is increasingly moving in an entirely different direction.
For a good primer how the new Muslim immigrants have changed the face of Europe, I suggest reading Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, which touches on many of the themes that Angela Merkel may have been too skittish or diplomatic to explore in her speech.
America is not the only part of the Western world dealing with immigration/assimilation problems, as recent events have taught us.
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