“Multikulti Has Failed”

JLH has translated an article about the failure of Germany to integrate its immigrants. Coming from the MSM, this amazing to see. Five years ago the Berlin Kurier would not have allowed such words — e.g. “Multikulti has failed” — to be published in its pages. The political winds seem to be shifting.

The translator includes this note:

One of the most significant things about this story is that the speaker is a Social Democrat.

The brief description of what makes the USA successful at integrating while others are not, should be painted in big, red letters the length of Pennsylvania Avenue to remind America’s leaders how their society was built.

The translation from the Berlin Kurier (as republished in Austria):

“Integration Is Hard Work — for Everybody”

Heinz Buschkowsky — the first SPD member to say, “Multikulti has failed” — talks about the bursting of the red-green dream.

“The question is whether Neukölln [Berlin] in the future will lie only geographically in the middle of Europe, or also in the hearts and minds of people,” says Heinz Buschkowsky, district mayor of Neukölln, in a talk with the Kurier. Germany’s most experienced immigration politician is referring to those people “who come from rural areas of Pakistan, southeast Anatolia, or Somalia, i.e., from another stage of civilization, where women are genitally mutilated, adultery is punished by public stoning, and children are raised collectively.” Suddenly, these people find themselves in a value system that requires completely different competences, formulates different duties, and makes new demands.”

For instance, that children come to school on time and have certain basic skills: “On the first day of school, some have never seen colored paper or clay, some cannot hold scissors or eat with a knife and fork. The language is often just street German — ‘I go school’ — or not spoken at all. We should not stand by while children from this uneducated milieu become clones of their parents.”

162 nationalities live in Neukölln. He is especially concerned about those who live in closed cultural circles, completely self-contained islands, parallel societies. Their infrastructure offers problem-free everyday life in their native language — an “inner integration” including their own judges and enforcers.

Some Arabic and Kurdish extended families are like “circled wagon trains.” “Frequently, organized crime is active where enforcement of national norms can be dangerous. Respect for civic order is not strongly developed there,” the district chief euphemistically describes what appears daily in the newspapers.

Buschkowsky is well acquainted with other countries who have many immigrants. He quotes the Dutch author, Leon de Winter. “A welfare state of the European type can never be a good integrator. People may see the USA as cold and inhuman, but their integration policy is more successful. They force people to participate, to rely on their skills and take responsibility for their lives. So long as there is an enormous wealth gap in the world, the poverty-stricken will migrate.”

Incentives

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Buschkowsky also knows why Germany is most attractive. “Naturally, the most comfortable welfare system exerts the most attraction. The anonymity of our dense population centers offers protection. Neukölln is bigger than Graz or an individual city in the Ruhr. It is easy to disappear into the crowd.”

16 million immigrants make Germany the second biggest immigration destination after the USA. “However,” Buschkowsky says, “in my opinion 25-30% have never actually ‘arrived’ in Central Europe.”

Integration policy has been discussed for too long. “Some talked about guest workers who go home again. Others talk about multiculturalism as a joyful slide into happiness. Both are false. Integration is hard work — for everyone. Society must become used to new impulses; the individual must acclimate to a different set of rules for his life.”

Buschkowsky does much to make this possible. He has unemployed immigrant women trained to be “district mothers.” They explain to completely isolated families about school and questions of education, domestic violence, healthy diet and language courses. The much-tested model has thus far reached over 2,500 families.

His Rütli Campus is especially ambitious. He has arranged the entire infrastructure of the neighborhood around the former problem school. The goal is companionship for the children from kindergarten through entrance into a career. At the same time, the 5,000 residents of this small area who have no common background are meant to become neighbors.* The project is regarded as a model of innovative integration.

Politics

Germany gives out the most money of countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) for family support, but is in third-to-last place in sustainability. Buschkowsky’s conclusion: “The only thing that succeeds is focusing on the children.” Every fourth student leaves school incapable of entering an apprenticeship or further education.

In Berlin, 25% are already in therapy before enrollment in school. 90% of those under 25 receiving help in the Neukölln Jobs Center are unplaceable without further qualifications. In North Neukölln, 70% of the children are receiving disability compensation.

“We do not need child support as a stay-at-home parenting credit,” Buschkowsky attacks the CSU [Bavarian-based faction allied with the CDU as “the Union”], who want to make it possible for parents to care for their children and avoid “GDR conditions.” “We do not need free required kindergartens and all-day schools, so that, from 1:45 PM on, the children do not see a TV from ‘home.’ Only in structured free time will the children learn German and how to obey rules.”

But Buschkowsky fails in the SPD even with his suggestion of putting soft pressure on hooky-players, i.e., “If the child does not go to school the [support] money does not go into the family’s bank account.” The lesson he draws from this: “The degree of suffering is not yet severe enough (to bring about} many changes that would favor the children. Our German ‘Pearl Harbor’ has not come yet.”

North Neukölln As a Nationwide Warning Signal

The southeast district of Berlin has more than 310,000 residents. Approximately 45% of them are legal and illegal immigrants. 30% of the residents receive social transfers [cash or in-kind aid to bridge extreme situations]. Foreigners are concentrated in the north of the district, where they comprise over half of the population, and 85-100% in the schools. 80% of those under 18 in the north are immigrants, and many are unemployed. In the already weak economy of Berlin, this district is one of the laggards. Not in criminality, however: 10 Arabic extended clans of ca. 500 people each live almost entirely from crime and welfare. The government seems helpless.

Buschkowsky the Person

Heinz Buschkowsky, 62, is the elected district mayor of Neukölln. His experiences in this problem district of Berlin have made him known throughout the Federal Republic. When he is in the mood, he expresses them. “Multikulti has failed” brought him much attention, which he visibly enjoys.

In the SPD, however, Buschkowsky accomplished absolutely nothing — not even in Berlin. The measures pushed through by the red-green coalition to ease the way for family members to join immigrants already here — one of their most important voter groups — are widely seen today as mistakes. Chancellor Merkel made corrections in 2007. Buschkowsky’s plea for soft pressure on immigrants unwilling to integrate or to work, as for instance successfully practiced in the Netherlands, is rejected by Greens, “Leftists”, and the SPD.

— Reinhard Frauscher, Berlin Kurier, February 4, 2010

*

Which may explain the name of the school, after the Rütli Oath, sworn by the leaders of the cantons that were to become Switzerland. In agreeing to defy Habsburg authority, they swore to “become one people.”