Debates on multiculturalism within europe; An assesment through France and Germany examples

Cultural diversity is one of the major issues in the political agenda of Europe. The immigrants, portrayed as the cause of cultural diversity, are perceived as a problem for the society. It is also stated that the multiculturalist approach, as a strategy for providing diversity to live in peace has already failed, as can be seen in the inclining trend of the antagonistic discourses of the European leaders. The quotations, especially by Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, on multiculturalism and its failure in their countries have been a key element in promoting the debate on this topic. What is the intention behind the repeated use of such discourses by many European leaders? Is it possible that multiculturalism failed in their countries? Or, could it be stated that these countries have never actually adopted the multiculturalist approach? Many international analysts, academicians and critics paid very little attention to the underlying reasons that drive these leaders to develop such discourses, or for that matter, to understand the extent of impact of domestic conflicts on those discourses. They were concerned only about the failure of multiculturalism and the theoretical problems involved. Besides, it is difficult to argue that France and Germany actually adopted an effective multiculturalist approach, thus the discourses on the failure of multiculturalism in these countries seem ironic. The underlying reason concerning the discourse on the failure of something which has never been tried, must be searched somewhere else. It might be that the failure of multiculturalism has been used as an implicit way to discuss the greater problems in their countries. In this respect, it is not a coincidence that aforementioned discourses were stated in a period of economic crisis, when anti-immigration spirit increased among the European population. Based on the above arguments, in this study, we try to show that the multiculturalist approach in France and Germany has been used as an indirect way of expressing the greater domestic problems, rather than delivering a solution to the issue of living together in peace. Keywords: Multiculturalism, Multicultural, Europe, France, Germany, Nation-state.