Madam, - It was interesting to read your feature on a group of young Irish-Chinese architects who propose and hope to create an "Irish Chinese Chinatown" in Dublin (Features, October 11th).
As an Irish-Irish architect I can only agree that this would be very nice and interesting. However, as an individual observing the present state of the multicultural ideal across Europe, I fear that this may not be such a good idea at all.
It is quite apparent from countries further advanced along the road that the multicultural notion hasn't really worked. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France and now in the United Kingdom we are seeing, in essence, the collapse of the multicultural ideal. And in parallel we see the rise of an increasingly strident ideology which states that immigrant communities should adapt themselves to the majority culture of their adopted homelands.
Whether this is right or wrong is not the point. The fact is, the more separate an immigrant community makes itself or feels itself to be from the host community, the more problems arise. In the course of my own career I worked in and was an immigrant in many countries. In the UK I worked on local authority housing. In the US I worked on shopping centres. In Zambia I worked on low-cost, low-tech housing and basic infrastructure. In none of these countries or others did I feel any urge to get together with the other ethnic Irish people around me to create Irish pubs, thatched cottages or whatever hotch-potch that might pass for the Irish architectural cultural heritage.
In short, I believe that the best way forward for young immigrants of any ethnic background is to more or less forget where they or their parents come from, and integrate. China may very well be the future for the world, but for young Irish-Chinese in Ireland it is the past. It is really up to them, and to all immigrant groups, to look at native Irish culture, understand it, and join in. - Yours, etc,
GERRY KENNEDY, Killala, Co Mayo.