A GHOST is haunting Europe—the ghost of exclusive, narrow-minded nationalism. The continent has seen its share of destabilising –isms, from Marxism to the original military-driven state-building nationalism, to the half-century-long struggle between global capitalism and communism. When the cold war ended, it looked as though Europe was fated to settle into a period of quiet, prosperous boredom. Instead, Europe’s societies have been shaken to their foundations by the question of what a European nation-state is to look like in the 21st century. And the chief reason for that is obvious, with a quick look around any western European capital today: immigration. Black and brown faces from poorer countries have transformed the formerly homogenous countries, and some of the locals are not terribly happy about it. Just this week, anti-immigration protesters in Dresden borrowed a protest-slogan from the days of communist East Germany: “Wir Sind Das Volk” ("We are the people"). In 1989 it was an inspired protest against dictatorship and division. Today, it has a creepier ring: those who are not das Volk... well, the imagination does not require much help.

Since overt racism is frowned on, language has become a proxy for those who worry about foreigners. One protester, insisting that those who would curb (not end) immigration are not Nazis, told the Financial Times that he welcomes skilled immigrants who aim to assimilate: “If I want to emigrate to America, I’d be obliged to learn English. I’d be obliged to introduce myself to the culture."

Probably coincidentally, the march came just days after a nationwide tizzy over language. Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, a regional conservative party allied with Angela Merkel, the chancellor, suggested late last week at a party conference that immigrants should be obliged to speak German—not just to have the ability to do so, but to actually do so, and not just in public, but at home.

The nationwide pushback was instantaneous, especially on Twitter under the mocking hashtag #yallaCSU (yalla is roughly “let’s go” in Arabic). Even one of the CSU's Christian Democratic allies (from Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union) said, “It doesn't have anything to do with politics whether I speak Latin, Klingon or Hessian at home.”

The last point was a telling one. Many other German wags said that the CSU might first consider telling Bavarians to learn German. German speakers flaunt their local dialects (many of them mutually incomprehensible) all around the country. And no region is as well known for its pride in its own local patois as Bavaria. The slogan for Bayern Munich’s football team is Mia san mia—self-consciously Bavarian for wir sind wir, or “We are we”. (Or “we are us”, if you like.)

What distinguishes the young Munich resident whose grandparents came from upper Bavaria from the one whose grandparents came from Turkey? After a generation, the parents of both were likely to speak High (standard) German. And the children are likely to speak it exclusively: the German dialects tend to disappear in Germans who move to big cities or different parts of the country. As for foreigners who move to Germany, they may learn German imperfectly, if at all. But their kids will learn it fluently by growing up there, and the next generation is likely to speak only German. A short ride in a big-city U-Bahn might well find an old lady in a hijab speaking in Turkish, but it is more likely to turn up two Turkish-descended teenagers born and raised in Germany, speaking German in the rapid-fire, comfortable slangy way of teenagers everywhere.

Germans have no problem with those who speak Bavarian at home being less than patriotic. It takes little leap of the imagination to extend the same to those who speak Turkish or Vietnamese. The “speak German at home” row is a non-solution to a non-problem. The number of people who are raised in Germany and yet speak no German is vanishingly small. People tend naturally to learn the language around them, especially if they need it to survive economically. So the problem is vastly exaggerated. As for the solution, even for those few who have lived for decades in Germany without learning German, would it really help to try to get them to discuss Turkish topics over Turkish food in broken German over the dinner table? (And who would enforce this?) The real solution is to break down social and work barriers that slow down broader integration. Knock down those, and the language will come.