ABSTRACT
Multiculturalism has become a derogatory term in present day Germany. Politicians tend to either omit it from their vocabulary or to emphasize their distance from ‘multicultural dreams’. Few public figures still commit themselves to a policy of multiculturalism. The term is now almost exclusively used as a negative image of the past, as a synonym for the ills and illusions of a liberal left that allegedly caused many of the problems German society currently faces. Of course, Germany has not abandoned an official policy or leading para-
digm of multiculturalism. Such an official policy never existed – at least on the federal level. In Germany, attitudes to multiculturalism are important as part of a political and cognitive framework that determines future developments. This framework has, in the past few years, changed in important ways. While in the past commitment or opposition to multiculturalism divided those who welcomed or resisted Germany’s transformation into an immigrant society, today these old trenches have largely disappeared, as the last major political force, the Christian Democrats have slowly moved towards an acceptance of immigration. In a statement typical of the stance taken by the Conservatives of Angela Merkel’s government, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Minister for integration, Maria Böhmer (2005), said that while Germany was not a classic immigration country, Germans had to face the fact that, of Germany’s inhabitants, 14 million had a migration background. While it was a government of Social Democrats and Green Party that pushed through the long-awaited reform of the citizenship law, Conservative politicians have taken steps towards the symbolic recognition of religious plurality and of the key importance of the integration of migrants: it was Interior Minister Schäuble who hosted the first official Islam Conference and Chancellor Merkel who played host to the first Integration Summit of the federal government in July 2006. Today, the old battles about whether Germany is a country of immigration seem settled, and the doors seem wide open towards constructive efforts to improve the position of immigrants and their descendants in German society. Germany’s inhabitants now have to determine what
kind of future this immigrant society envisages for itself and what space will be allowed for the development of immigrant cultures, languages and religions. But while the facts of past immigration and the resultant plurality of backgrounds and experiences in the German population are now accepted, this is not accompanied by a generally positive approach to cultural diversity and public representation of minorities as groups. Germany’s life as a selfconscious country of immigration begins in a climate unfavourable to an active promotion of minority rights and identities. In this chapter, I shall first analyse policy changes of the past decade in
greater detail. I will then turn to reasons for the weakness of multicultural positions focussing on popular attitudes. The following section draws attention to the fact that, in spite of an official policy that has traditionally been hostile to immigration and that is still hostile to institutionalized plurality, elements of multicultural policies exist in Germany. I shall conclude by offering some thoughts on the prospects for the development of an explicit policy of pluralism and public recognition of minorities.
