Assimilation is a crime says the Turkish Prime Minister

Recently, the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was in Germany and called on the Turkish people in Germany to not give up their ethnicity. He said "assimilation is tantamount to a crime against humanity" and called for Germany to establish schools that teach Turkish students in Turkish. Chancellor Merkel publicly disagreed with him, stating that Turkish people should integrate in German society and in support of Turkish as a second language in schools.

The immigration question as I've written before is one that is troubling and will trouble Germany. People were invited here over the last 40 years to work but were never made welcome. One result of this is that they then held on to their own heritages and languages and did not fully assimilate. They dreamed of returning to the homeland, while staying in Germany and now retiring here.

I do not believe that assimilation should be promoted, but rather support more of a "multicultural" model which exists in American society. People there feel free to identify with their ethnic heritages. Yet, they express themselves as being part American, i.e., Irish-American, African-American, etc. There is a tolerance in America for ethnic identity which I am not certain is very present in Germany or in the rest of mainland Europe. Perhaps, Great Britain is different.