Bundesinnenminister Thomas de Maizière erklärte, das sei die höchste Zahl von Asylbewerberzugängen, die jemals in Deutschland verzeichnet worden sei. “Dieser enorme Zustrom hat uns vor Herausforderungen gestellt, wie es sie seit der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit nicht mehr gegeben hat.” – “1,1 Millionen Flüchtlinge kamen 2015 nach Deutschland,” Die Welt, Berlin, 6. Januar 2016
My translation:
Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere explained that this was the highest number of asylum seekers that has ever been recorded in Germany. “This tremendous influx has presented us with challenges that have not been seen since the immediate postwar period.” – “1.1 Million Refugees Came to Germany in 2015,” Die Welt, Berlin, January 6, 2016
Germany, for much of its history, has been Europe’s misunderstood country of immigration, according to the book The New Germany and Migration in Europe by Barbara Marshall. Marshall attempts to close the gap between Germany’s record on immigration and the public and scholarly perception of it as she argues that it is larger than any comparable country in the Western world. Although Germany has among the largest foreign populations in Europe and its cities are visibly multicultural, public opinion has often perceived Germany, and Germans, to be relatively close-minded. In 2015 though, that may have all changed.
This article from the German print and online newspaper, Die Welt, in English, The World, which is edited and published in Berlin, is of interest to historians who want to know how Germany handled the steady but also heightened increase of refugees and asylum seekers to Europe during, but especially in the later half of 2015. Die Welt is a national newspaper and as such its audience was likely the German population although interestingly if read online, the articles can seemingly only be translated into English from German. The article seems to have been somewhat widely read and at the time of this post there were 124 comments.
In the comments readers mostly either critiqued or praised Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of open borders and the welcoming of refugees and asylum seekers to Germany. Some commenters like ‘Tom’ believed that German politicians and the national media were not being honest about the yearly statistics. Others, like ‘mister_aj’, had more positive responses and were content knowing that the influx of refugees and asylum seekers was creating jobs for Germans who were maybe previously unemployed.
The article positions Germany in a do good standing and sheds a positive light on the country in regards to its efforts with handling Europe’s migrant crisis. Although readers may detect a bias in the article, which is only natural from a German newspaper reporting on favorable German developments, in this case, the bias can be overlooked because according to multiple reports, such as this extensive article with graphics from the BBC, Germany did in fact, receive the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers of any country in Europe according to data from October 2015. Germany, through the policies of Angela Merkel, may have possibly shifted public opinion on matters regarding immigration but as more refugees and asylum seekers attempt to enter Germany in the coming year, and relations between native Germans and migrants become more tense, only time will tell how welcoming Germany, and Germans truly are, or are willing to be.
– Maude Molesworth