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roach, I'm not expert on Germany, but my impression is that multi-kulti in the German context means something quite different from what [the perpetually besieged concept of] 'multi-culturalism' signifies in the US.
In my understanding, multi-kulti was an arrangement designed to keep guest workers socially and politically separate from 'Germans'. So a retreat from multi-kulti might not have the xenophobic implications one might think - many opponents of the guest worker policy actually argue for greater integration and inclusion of immigrant populations in mainstream German life.
Admittedly this is all sort of hypothetical for me and entirely information-free - sorry about that. Maybe I just find it really hard to conceive that this move could mean what critics think it means; naked anti-immigrant rhetoric from the top seems so out of character for Germany.
I'd be curious whether the debate in Germany is framed the same way as in these English sources (is this seen as a 'rightward lurch', is Merkel really saying that 'more is required' of immigrants in the sense that they're [in US-right parlance] not pulling their weight, or is she simply restating the case for integration?)
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