Member-only story
‘We Can Manage This’ (Wir Schaffen Das)
Liberal democracies still struggle with Angela Merkel’s decision to welcome Syrian refugees in 2015.
Suddenly, they were everywhere. In an endless stream, migrants from Syria flowed North, passing through Greece, Hungary, Austria, and eventually into Germany. Without consulting any of the countries dotting the path to the German state of Bavaria, then-chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel announced to the world: Wir schaffen das (We can manage this).
Angela Merkel was tragically wrong.
Millions of Syrians, who found themselves being hunted by their own government and blown apart by Russian warplanes, heard Ms. Merkel’s offer to “come to Germany. We will take care of you. You will get citizenship.” They heard her words loud and clear, and the race was on to get to Germany as quickly as possible before the Germans woke up and found their villages and cities overflowing with migrants.
The sense of being invaded by Germans happened faster than many imagined. At first, the country welcomed the waves of desperate humans. With more than a little hubris, German politicians and citizens disregarded the inconvenience of Merkel’s invitation. Almost immediately, the citizens of the much smaller countries along the route from Syria expressed…
