Multiculturalism - a definition I like

Mat has a good post on how multiculturalism should be

To me, multiculturalism is the ability to have a friend who's muslim, another who's jewish and to chase after a girl whose grandmother came from Africa. We learn from those who move here, just as they learn from us, we take on board the bits we like, condemn the bits we dislike (forced marriages anyone?) and the new communities do the same with us. Eventually, they merge together

Exactly, this is how it should be. In fact this is how it is most of the time, or at least was.

There was no special name because that was simply what had happened when people came here. Such as the Huguenots and eastern european Jews. Or more recently Caribbeans, Chinese, Vietnamese, or the Ugandan refugees. All came and added a new perspective, a bit more hybrid vigor to this mongrel nation. There is no special name for it because it is not special, it is simply what will happen given no other factors.

Multiculturalism does have a special name because it is special. What it is, rather than what it should be, is not the slow process of fusion between cultures. It is that the state has stepped in to stop the natural process that is the melting pot giving an immigrant community incentives so that they do not do what comes naturally and merge.