A well-worn critique of the North American variety of multiculturalism is that its purported multiculture is, in truth, an anti-culture where capitalism destroys meaningful cultural values and leaves only economic interest behind; the melting pot as a vat of acid. (My Canadian friends might argue that this is a valid critique of the United States, but not of Canada. I would reply that the difference is one of degree, not kind.) I witnessed this in entertaining miniature Saturday, in the IKEA complex outside Bern.
My family and I arrived around 09:45, steeled to spend as long as it took to get our new home outfitted. We were especially concerned about potential language difficulties. Our French being rudimentary at very best, and Bern being a German canton, we went in expecting the worst. Instead, we discovered that the great majority of IKEA staff we approached spoke excellent English. They were eager to assist us in our plight, and this lead to the best IKEA customer experience either of us have yet had. (It’d better have been the best IKEA experience ever, considering that we spent over 6 hours and many thousands of francs in the big blue box that day.)
It was during the first of these English conversations with an IKEA staff person that I noticed the little flag graphics on her name tag. Below her name were small pictures of the British and Slovenian flags. I asked if this meant that she spoke English and Slovenian, in addition to German. She answered to the affirmative, delighting Martha and prompting them to switch to Slovenian to conclude the ordering of our bedroom furniture.
From then on, I made a point of checking out the name tags of every staff person we passed. About every other IKEAite had flags on their tag; most one or two, some three or four. As the day went on and I saw more and more of these folks, the rusty gears began turning in my head. Here we were in roughly the geographic centre of Europe and one of the longest-lasting successful mutilcultures in the world. Not only were all the staff wearing the uniform of one of the most identifiable multinational corporations in the world, but they had explicitly suborned their cultural affinities (in the form of language proficiency) to the utility of their corporate employer. National flags are but a small presence on the IKEA uniform, and only present at all to better facilitate commerce.
One IKEA employee later in the day, when asked about the name tags and polyglot character of herself and her co-workers, told us, “We get lots of people in here who are never going to learn our language. They need to buy things, too.”