Has Multi-Culturalism Had Its Day?

Writing in the latest issue of London-based Prospect (the magazine I edit), a leading German Social Democrat, Ernst Hillebrand, has this to say about multiculturalism in Europe: “The left’s answer to a significant rise in European immigration in recent decades—the concept of ‘multiculturalism’—has failed dramatically. It has led to fragmented societies and ghettos of marginalised minorities in which the mutual frustrations of both indigenous populations and immigrants have increased. This applies above all to immigrants from Islamic countries, among whom the second and third generations often have much more hostile attitudes to western society and its values than their elders. For many years the left refused to even debate this issue.”

Hillebrand may be overstating the case but this is a more or less commonplace observation these days in Europe. In Britain, the country I know best, the political class is certainly more confused about immigration and...