Scotland as a multicultural country.

Is Scotland a multicultural country? In order to answer this question, we first should ask us about multiculturalism. What's multiculturalism? Multiculturalism is the acceptance and encouragement of many cultures in a society. It means that a multicultural country should encourages harmony both racial and ethnic, promotes understanding between different cultures and discourages any kind of violence, discrimination and hatred. Living in a diverse society can be a wonderful experience but are we prepared for this? Scotland is already part of several commissions, like the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Racial Equality Commission, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission, to name a few. We all know that the United Kingdom has adopted multiculturalism as an official policy and it is written in the set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed. All us, British or not, must to understand and respect these laws which forbid discrimination based on ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age and mental or physical disabilities. But as often happens, theory and reality are different. About one month ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has failed completely. She said that approach is wrong, adding that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values. She also said that the country has the right to make demands on immigrants and not just subsiding them. Recent studies showed high percentage of Germans who refuse immigrants. One third of them feel the country is being over-run by foreigners and the same percentage feel foreigners should be sent home when jobs are scarce. Many Germans have showed sympathy for a central bank board member who said last August the country was being more stupid by poorly educated and unproductive migrants. But Germany need immigrants to grow. In fact, to avoid to knock about one percent off the country's grow rate, Germany urgently needs about 400k engineers and qualified workers. A similar situation is happening nowadays in the United Kingdom. To keep the pace of its economic development, the UK needs qualified and productive migrants. But it's not easy. Immigration is a complex process. It doesn't finish after migrants have moved to their adopted country, moving is just the beginning indeed. To create a real multicultural society, integration must come from all sectors involved. First, from the government, creating conditions to settle mixed communities, and punishing any kind of intolerance or hatred severely. Secondly, from residents and British people, who should be educated and cultured to accept diversity and tolerate it. Last, from immigrants. Immigrant can't pretend housing benefits and other government subsidies without opening themselves to different people. Starting with the language. When one doesn't speak the language of the country in which one lives that doesn't serve anyone, neither the person concerned, the country, nor the society. As Immigrants, we have the moral duty to learn English, and speak it fluently and without an accent. That should start at classrooms.