.... Often in history it is not the motives that matter, but the consequences. Since the start of 2015, Germany has received 1.38m “initial asylum applications”, about a third of them from Syrians. Three-quarters of the asylum seekers are aged 30 or younger; 60% are male. About half the applications have been approved, but only around 80,000 of those denied asylum have been deported. About 86% of accepted refugees are Muslims.
The full implications of this mass influx remain to be seen. According to the Pew Research Centre, the Muslim population of Germany (which was 6% in 2016) could be anything between 8.7% and 19.7% by 2050, depending on the future rate of immigration.
The short-run consequences, however, are clear. There has been a marked increase in crime. And there has been a seismic political backlash. The crime issue is controversial, but last month a rigorous, government-commissioned study was published by the Zürich University of Applied Sciences, based on data from the state of Lower Saxony. By the end of 2016, around 750,000 of the state’s 8m residents were not German citizens, and about 170,000 of them had applied for asylum. [429 comments]
[TOP RATED CPMMENT 209 votes] Brilliant article and 100% spot on. Merkel was 80% behind my reason to vote to Leave. Cannot believe one person can make such a monumental decision to completely destroy the culture of a country and then wanted to do the same to the U.K. by allocating a quota here.
[2ND 183] Multicultural migration does not seem to be working anywhere except in the heads of the liberals who have hijacked Europe for self indulgent experimentation.
[3RD 183] A good article. I never understood the logic that held Germany were helping the most vulnerable of the Syrian crisis by throwing open their borders - it inevitably would result in the youngest, fittest and most able to make the journey tramping across Europe to get there.
It's a stupid idea, asylum but only if you can get there under your own steam, what happens to the countries you transit through, what happens to those who can't pay the people smuggler, what happens to the elderly and the vulnerable who simply can't leave the camps?
Cameron by contrast had the right idea which was to help people in situ but for that eh was branded heartless by the sort of hypocrites who claimed they were happy to house a Syrian family (Harman and Sturgeon I'm looking at you) and have never lifted a finger to do so.
[4TH 158] Perhaps Merkel was hoping to become the next head of the UN after leaving German politics and as part of her job application she thought that her great 'humanitarian' gesture would endear her to many Third-World countries who would decide whom to appoint?
A bit like Blair giving away much of our EU rebate in the hope of becoming the next Head of the EU Commission - a job application that was dashed by the Iraq War.
Politicians' job applications can often be very expensive - for their citizens.
[5TH 152] Wait until human rights lawyers enable them to bring their extended families over.
[6TH 133] I am one of the new members who joined the SPD. Reason was to stop Merkel and the grand coalition. I can agree with everything in this article and I think Merkel has been an epic failure. But people here in Germany appreciate the fact that she seems to take care of things so they could stop bothering about politics. She has silenced the political discourse and people liked that. I did too for a long time.
The migration crisis was my point of no return and I now wish for her to leave. I do hope that a minority government will not last and I speculate that we will get new elections soon - which would most likely bring another swing to the right.
[7TH 116] You forgot to mention BREXIT: it was the media showing those endless columns of mainly young Muslim men flooding into Europe that finally topped the balance in the UK's referendum. And that was all down to Merkel, unilaterally, opening up the possibility to not only asylum seekers but millions in the middle east and north Africa to make the great trek. [The Times (£)] Read more
