Do you remember that wisecrack I mentioned the other day about fish and guests growing stale after three days? YouGov provides a little empirical evidence that’s the case in Germany:
62% of Germans now say the number of asylum seekers is too high, up from 53% in November – driven mainly by the hardening attitudes of women
Since the events of New Year’s Eve in Cologne, in which dozens of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by men described as of North African and Arab appearance, the tide has begun to turn against Germany’s open-door approach to immigration. Following protests by the right-wing Pegida movement involving fireworks and bottles being thrown at police, Angela Merkel proposed new measures to deny the right of asylum for those who have committed crimes or are on probation – where currently only asylum seekers who have been sentenced to at least three years’ imprisonment, and will not be at risk in their countries of origin, are forcibly deported.
New research by YouGov in Germany for the Bild newspaper reveals a sharp hardening of attitudes to immigration following the attacks in Cologne.
The percentage of Germans who think that they’ve already accepted too many refugees will rise and the percentage of those who think they can accept more will decline. Opinion has not reached the government-threatening level yet.
This was inevitable. Merkel’s reckless generosity is helping the far right, weakening her own party and all its causes, and not exactly helping her own Muslim population, Muslim immigration generally, or the cause of a united, borderless Europe. It was an epic blunder. I won’t be surprised to learn that it’s pushing more Brits toward an anti-EU position and they have a referendum some time in the next year IIRC.
There are millions, maybe tens of millions, of people in the MENA and especially in the Levant who are displaced or under physical threat or economically desperate. It’s suicidal madness to think Europe can absorb any significant percentage of those folks. The more who get into Europe the more the reaction builds. The more the reaction builds, the worse life is for Muslims already in Europe. If God forbid some recent arrivals are implicated in an attack in Germany – that will finish Merkel.
People are behaving stupidly on this issue, and I include American politicians all across the ideological spectrum.
I think that’s a critical point. Germany has a substantial population of resident Turks, some of whom have been there for generations. Many are not German citizens.
I’m afraid it’s going to be rough sledding for them and there’s really nowhere for them to go. They’re not really Germans and they’re not really Turks.