The Nobel Peace Prize goes to ...

[Cecil]

To even mention the A word would brand you racist here.

Keeping them in a cultural ghetto is far more racist.  Since, you know, one of the ways racism works is you refuse certain groups the ability to assimilate.  How in the world is assimilation racist?

Why dont you ask the multicultis that? Its the inmates running the asylum over here.

[PDH]

We all just need to agree that the US is great with immigration and the european states suck at it.

[Valmy]

To even mention the A word would brand you racist here.

Keeping them in a cultural ghetto is far more racist.  Since, you know, one of the ways racism works is you refuse certain groups the ability to assimilate.  How in the world is assimilation racist?

THEIR CULTURE IS LOVELY DAMMIT

I am sure their culture is lovely but it is not the culture of the country they moved to.  I guess if they just plain do not want to assimilate that is one thing but surely most of them at least want to understand and operate inside the culture of the place they live in if not fully declare themselves proud members of the German nation or whatever.

[garbon]

To even mention the A word would brand you racist here.

Keeping them in a cultural ghetto is far more racist.  Since, you know, one of the ways racism works is you refuse certain groups the ability to assimilate.  How in the world is assimilation racist?

The racism would come from our policies in the past where would we try and make sure that new immigrants gave up all of their former cultural customs.

[The Brain]

To even mention the A word would brand you racist here.

Keeping them in a cultural ghetto is far more racist.  Since, you know, one of the ways racism works is you refuse certain groups the ability to assimilate.  How in the world is assimilation racist?

THEIR CULTURE IS LOVELY DAMMIT

I am sure their culture is lovely but it is not the culture of the country they moved to.  I guess if they just plain do not want to assimilate that is one thing but surely most of them at least want to understand and operate inside the culture of the place they live in if not fully declare themselves proud members of the German nation or whatever.

In Sweden what you're saying will get you excommunicated for racism. I don't make the rules.

[CountDeMoney]

The racism would come from our policies in the past where would we try and make sure that new immigrants gave up all of their former cultural customs.

And it was never really successful.  Immigrant neighborhoods thrived, entire communities flourished in their own ways, maintaining their own languages, their own churches, their own local economies.

Now, the two major groups that were not given the ability to assimilate themselves or maintain their cultures, they're the ones that suffered from race-based policies.

[Valmy]

The racism would come from our policies in the past where would we try and make sure that new immigrants gave up all of their former cultural customs.

That was not motivated by racism.  And besides we let them run their own language newspapers and businesses and schools and churches.  So to the extent we had policies to 'make sure' that the new immigrants gave up all of their former cultural customs they were not very successfully applied.  Even in this case we only wanted the white people to assimilate anyway.  We were fine with the Chinese staying in their little enclaves, presuming we let them in, because we did not want them around anyway.

Granted things would get pretty ugly if you were unfortunate enough to be a strong cultural practitioner of a country that just went to war with the United States.

[Syt]

Except for your example to apply, those third generation west virginians would have to be denied Washington State citizenship, despite being born there...

Which is certainly not the case in Germany or Austria. In fact, very often the second if not the first already has local citizenship at latest when they turn 18.

[Valmy]

In Sweden what you're saying will get you excommunicated for racism. I don't make the rules.

So what is a non-racist plan?  A partition of the country into different cultural-ethnic zones?

[The Brain]

In Sweden what you're saying will get you excommunicated for racism. I don't make the rules.

So what is a non-racist plan?  A partition of the country into different cultural-ethnic zones?

Why would there be a plan?

[Valmy]

Why would there be a plan?

I thought commies like the Swedes were all about plans.  Particularly five year ones.

[garbon]

The racism would come from our policies in the past where would we try and make sure that new immigrants gave up all of their former cultural customs.

That was not motivated by racism.

Sure the correct term would probably be something like xenophobia as it couldn't have been racism or said groups could never have assimilated. We certainly did want them to give up their "barbaric" customs though.

[Syt]

Also, I'd like to point out that I live in a part of Vienna that has a high percentage of foreigners - ca. 25%, not counting the naturalized ones. Most of them from the Balkans, Turkey etc. In general it's considered to be one of the "not so nice" areas of Vienna (though it's still safer than many other European cities - it's certainly no Parisian banlieu). Personally, I have no problems living here or felt uncomfortable. Most people just want to do their thing, be it running a small business or raising a family. In my apartment building are Austrians, Chinese, Africans and Turks, and there's no issues. There's a Turkish youth café in the basement (recently refurbished with new pictures in the windows - one of them a larger than life picture of Bill Cosby photoshopped to look like he's holding the mouthpiece of a waterpipe. The youths that hang out there (or in other places) are your usual teens - they may listen to Turk-Rap/-Pop, but largely there's no visible differences to Austrian teens (except for the language, obviously).

On the whole I think it's not as dire a situation as the right wingers want to paint ("Almost 10% of all crime in Vienna happens in 10th District" - they don't mention that the district has MORE than 10% of the people of Vienna . . . ), nor as rosy as the multiculturalists want to believe. Mostly it's folks wanting to go with their lives, with a few rabble rousers trying to turn this into a tribalist issue.

[The Brain]

Why would there be a plan?

I thought commies like the Swedes were all about plans.  Particularly five year ones.

Well there was indeed a plan. The plan was to let as many uneducated third worlders as possible into the country and get them dependent on government handouts, to ensure Socialist majority in parliament. As far as I can make out the plan pretty much ended there. And as plans go it was pretty neat, immigrants vote overwhelmingly Red. Obviously it was very destructive for the country and the people in it, natives and immigrants. That however was never seen as a problem.

[Valmy]

Sure the correct term would probably be something like xenophobia as it couldn't have been racism or said groups could never have assimilated. We certainly did want them to give up their "barbaric" customs though.

Well there was certainly alot of anxiety as immigrants were just let in without restriction and they poured in in huge numbers.  But come on garbon there were hundreds of entire towns that consisted of nothing but one ethnic group practicing its culture and speaking its own language and everybody left them well enough alone.