Diogenes
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It seems to me that most countries in the world are based on tribal cohesion that goes back to at least the Middle Ages and, while they may officially accept immigrants from other countries and former colonies, those immigrants are never completely accepted as German, French, Dutch, Japanese, or whatever. The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are different in that their societies are built on acceptance of ideals rather than ethnic background, and it is much easier for a newcomer to be accepted - provided they adopt the social norms of their new home.Your co worker sounds somewhat like my father.. except my dad is younger. I personally want to see Turkey in the EU and align with Europe more. I don't like that Angela Merkle is against it. There are so many Turkish people still in Germany today, and have been stateless since going there to rebuild their country. I lived in Germany for a little while myself.. but I have no personal complaints. I like the country. I just think the Turkish people should have some form of citizenship or voice, if not in Germany then at least through the EU.. It's not fair of Germany to block it every way possible.
For an excellent discussion of minorities and assimilation, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell's collection of essays Black Rednecks and White Liberals.
One of the major obstacles to assimilation is the misguided attempt of some to promote "multiculturalism" which facilitates the creation of ghettos that isolate the newcomers from mainstream life and delay the assimilation. The existence of those ghettos throughout Europe is now a serious problem, and Angela Merkel is the only leader so far with the courage to identify it as such and attempt to deal with it. The absurd demand of some of these ghettos that they be allowed to apply their own version of civil law within their enclaves is completely unacceptable, and the fact that a few countries have allowed it by default in some areas is simply an abdication of sovereignty for which they will pay dearly in the future.
Everyone in the world is either an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants, even those we call "natives" (whose immigration history is lost in the mists of the past). Here in the US we recognize this, mostly I suppose because so many of us are descended from recent immigrants and we have heard stories from family members who suffered discrimination against Irish, Italians, Japanese, Jews or whatever. Now we are all Americans who get along insofar as we follow the social norms and respect the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and we accept as one of us those newcomers who will do the same.
Those who express contempt for our ideals or flaunt the social norms of courtesy are not accepted so easily, and incidents like the flying imams in Minneapolis set up all sorts of red flags. The contempt for the country and its sensibilities demonstrated by the proposal to build a mosque near Ground Zero (and named Cordoba House, no less!!) brings shame and contempt upon the whole group these jerks claim to represent. I hope that true American Muslims will convince these provocateurs to abandon their plans and work instead to restore Islam to a respectable position in the world.