Recent Refugee Increases Have Negatively Altered Germans’ Attitudes Toward Immigration

Recent Refugee Increases Have Negatively Altered Germans’ Attitudes toward Immigration

Since the beginning of 2015 over 1.1 million registered refugees (mostly from Syria and Iraq) have sought asylum in Germany (Becker). In comparison, “the United States would have had to admit about 4 million refugees this year to take in a similar proportion of its population” (Cohen). Having accounted for 450,000 arrivals last year (Vasagar), the pace and amount at which asylum seekers have been coming to Germany is stretching the country’s immigration system to its limit. In addition, recent criminal activity involving refugees has fueled great concern over cultural, ethnic, and religious conflict within the German communities and leads to the conclusion that the quality of life for countless Germans has been permanently weakened and the typical German citizen no longer supports the Government’s failed open immigration policy.

Germany’s current refugee policy was established in 2005 during a Geneva conference of European Union nations and modified in 2013. It is now known as Dublin Regulation which is an EU law to quickly determine the Member State accountability for an asylum claim and provides for the transfer of an asylum seeker to that Member State. Typically, the accountable Member State will be the state through which the asylum seeker first arrived within the EU (EU2013). In August 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expanded the refugee policy to an open-arms policy or Willkommenskultur, a neologism meaning “a culture of being welcoming” (Hecht), so that Syrian refugees could file an asylum claim in Germany even when their port of entry was another EU country.

Under the current German law, asylum seekers are allowed to free accommodation, federal funding to live with, medical care and health insurance as well as potential employment. Because the policy offers incredible incentives for refugees and encourages them to flee the Middle East/North Africa and come to Germany, the flow of refugees has simply overwhelmed the infrastructure. The estimated cost per refugee per year is 15,000€ ($16,900) for housing, food, welfare, integration, and language classes (Becker).

As a result, there is only limited space available to accommodate all of these immigrants. Now clashing cultures live in concentrated areas. Because the housing issue is a state issue and not a federal issue, state authorities have been forced to seize public buildings including school gymnasiums, Olympic training facilities, and available university buildings as well as vacant private properties (Sputnik). Immigrant children have to go to school, but because of their religious background the refugees demand provisions regarding their culture, religious facilities and freedom to practice as well as dietary requirement support from the state (Kern). This causes indignation among Germans since they see their own children’s education in danger due to the lack of funding support, facilities, and classroom space. Germans are losing their normal way of life and paying taxes to accommodate foreigners without compensation or an end in sight. According to Germany’s development minister, Gerd Mueller, the migrant invasion will reach up to 10 million by 2020 (Halleit).

In addition to the 1.1 million aliens registered with the BAMF (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees) in 2015 there is a staggering number of unregistered refugees. A new study by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) says that Germany is expecting at least another 800,000 refugees in 2016 and additional 500,000 in 2017. Estimates exceed 50 billion euros in tax revenue are needed in the next two years to cover the expenses. Based on these numbers, a "cumulative yearly average" is then calculated. "If two refugees arrive on July 1, they are counted as if one person stayed the whole year," said Hentze, author of the IW study. The study puts this yearly average at 1.525 million people in 2016, and 2.163 million in 2017. The rest of the math is fairly simple: the average number of refugees is multiplied by the costs per head. (Becker). Regrettably, state and local taxpayers are shouldering the financial burden.

From the German point of view, the refugees should have to adjust to the German culture. An alarmingly high percentage of the German population is affiliated with