The German government announced plans on Monday for a raft of measures aimed at fostering integration of immigrants, two days after Chancellor Angela Merkel said multiculturalism had "failed totally." "For a while multiculturalism in Germany was about immigrants living as they wished and not putting integration too much in the forefront. This is what the chancellor wanted to stress," spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
"In everybody's interest, this society has to act, and the government will act," he told a regular government briefing. On Wednesday, Merkel's centre-right cabinet would adopt "concrete" new regulations governing immigration policy and residency permits, with a focus on German language courses and combating forced marriages, he said.
He added that the government aimed in December to sign off on a bill that would see more foreign diplomas formally recognised. "This country is extremely glad to have hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of people with foreign roots who are well integrated," Seibert said. "But we also recognise, and perhaps we are stressing it more now than in years gone by, that with some foreigners integration is not happening as it should. In some cases it is quite openly being rejected."