Seite - 229 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Round Table Discussion | Worst Case and Best Practice 229 society, of course. I think, it’s not only a question of the objective criteria – how is the share of immigrants and so on – but also a question of self-definition. I think, a non-immigrant society is a society where it is accepted that for integration or for the being of a societal whole, cultural homogenity is necessary. But an immigrant society is a society with a self-definition where cultural homogenity is not necessary for integration. Cultural differences are not only legal but they are accepted. The question of integration is a question beyond the question of cultural homogenity. I think this a very important difference. A non- immigrant society is a cultural nation. You have to speak good English, not only English, but good English, to give a sign that you are belonging to the society. And you can see this difference also, let’s say, between the British society and the North American societies, Canada and the US. From the very beginning, almost all of them were immigrants – except the Native Americans. And I think, this is very important that from the very beginning you have no definition of your nation as a cultural nation – as a nation of people, “all the same colour, all the same religion, the same language” and so on. Heinz Bonfadelli Just a short remark about the American Society. They are discussing now illegal immigration from Mexico. I think President Bush wants to build a fence – so even in the United States it’s a dilemma. Rainer Geißler Augie, I like very much your three criteria for an immigration country. And I think the Central European countries are 50 years beyond Canada. Canada is an immigration country since the 60’s or 70’s. Germany makes its first tentative steps to begin to be an immigration country. Still we are “Deutschland”, that means the “country of the Germans”, and not yet an immigration country. For one or two years now, we have the first act of immigration to manage who comes in. We have the first steps. For three or four years, we have been discussing the concept of integration, how to manage the diversity. And it’s a very controversial discussion, not multicultural like in Canada. It has just been said that our elite accepts that we need immigrants. That’s only a part of the elite.