Shaking Off

Meant to post this awhile ago…

Much ado has been made about Chancellor Merkel’s comments in regards to multiculturalism in Germany, that it has “utterly failed.”  At least they tried.  Certain former leaders of Germany were decidedly against multicultarism.

But frankly, I’m not surprised.  Multiculturalism is doomed to fail because too many immigrants are stuck in their ways, unwilling to integrate themselves into their new home.  This is partly why the whole idea of emigration has always baffled me.  Here you have people who are so proud of their country that they decide to leave it.  Huh?  Sure, many countries are poorer but if you truly loved your country you would stay there and try to build it into something great.  Of course the receiving nations’s national pride often evolves into xenophobia which is never a good thing but is worse if your country is the kind of place people like to immigrate to.

Of course it goes without saying that this doesn’t apply to refugees.  Refugees are those that leave their homes due to persecution: they don’t have a choice.  I love refugees, but said love has little to do with the people themselves.  I love refugees because I jump at any and every chance to ridicule foreign states possessing subpar human rights records.

Now here comes the twist: none of this applies to Canada, and to a lesser extent, Australia.  Founded by British subjects and populated with an assortment of European immigrants, our two countries were forged in the fire of the two world wars.  Since then it has become increasingly evident that our national identities are fairly shallow.

The Canadian nation began to die after the fall of the Diefenbaker government and we’ve been constitutionally multicultural since 1982.  As for down under, after the demise of White Australia their proximity to Asia and it’s plethora of unpleasant regimes made mass immigration inevitable.  With each passing year the Anzac legend dies a little bit more. Canada is beyond hope but republicanism could still save Australia, provided they want to be saved.

And it is only here, in countries void of a strong central identity, that multiculturalism can truly flourish.