At the same time, the far-right alternative for Germany capitalized on those fears and concerns. Friedrich Merz felt he needed to head them off. To do this, he adopted more and more of their language and now is putting that into policy with his coalition government.
A lot of people remember when Merkel addressed the nation and said, We can take in a million Syrian refugees. We can give them a home here in Germany. That has come to haunt Germany in some ways. Many feel we still can offer that invitation, and that’s driven both left and right politics, including the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Russell Moore: Christianity tells us how to respond to refugees, but it doesn’t necessarily craft exactly what the refugee policy ought to be. This is why sometimes communities struggle to figure out how to balance care of refugees without overburdening the system. Sometimes that’s a legitimate need-and-prudence sort of conversation. In this instance, you must also ask the additional question of whether Syria has changed enough that refugees going back would be safe.
Mike Cosper: I think part of the reason we’ve arrived at this place is a fundamental failure of assimilation. At the beginning of this process, I think there was this assumption that if Germany welcomed the stranger, they could integrate them into society and show them the benefits of the West. Germany has a massive welfare state, and they’ve been extremely generous to these refugees. Germany has had a labor shortage, so refugees who could fill some of the labor needs were seen as a potential benefit. Even conceptually, it wasn’t just purely an act of mercy.
I think they didn’t understand how powerful culture is, particularly when a large population comes into the country and lives in isolated enclaves. Assimilation becomes that much more difficult. Though it has been overstated by some in the right-wing, many folks who fled Islamic radicalism found themselves in communities with a reactionary spirit to the libertine West, and that anti-Western spirit turned them into Islamic radicals.
Germany has seen these terror attacks, often one-off things where a person pulls a knife in public and starts randomly stabbing people. You can imagine that being extremely unsettling. The far-right has really preyed upon that as well.
Chitwood: It’s important to know that attacks of this sort predated Merkel’s original statement. Many Syrian refugees are now German citizens; there is a longer dialogue around these issues. A lot of these individuals are not just critiquing the West as a whole but the German asylum system itself, the limitations placed on their ability to work and contribute to the workforce. Germany places limitations on where they can live and how they can connect with German neighbors.
I live in Eisenach, a town of 40,000 in the geographic center of Germany, in an apartment building with Nigerian and Albanian neighbors. I was talking today with Syrians and Iraqis, and we don’t feel here locally that we have an integration problem on either side. There are differences in how we approach religion, language, or food, but there’s been a rich exchange there as well. That’s where the church comes in.
The church has been transformed over the last several years because of this surge in refugees. Reports suggest that now half of European churches have at least 20 percent of their membership made up of people with a migrant background. It’s changed the way we do church here in Germany as well, whether that be Protestants, Catholics, or evangelicals. Churches also have critiqued the asylum system and deportations, offering church asylum and helping those navigating the system and the realities that they face back home.
I’m not a big advocate of the economic argument to be hospitable to migrants, but it’s part of the equation and certainly speaks to those who may not be moved by humanitarian reasons to see people avoid speedy deportation. Many people still await decisions on their asylum applications and cannot work. They would love to go into the workforce. I know several Nigerian Christians who have been waiting for years to be able to work. They’re still not able because their asylum cases haven’t been decided.
Moore: We actually don’t know what Syria is going to be. Everyone is inhaling right now and hoping against hope for the best. Unfortunately, we also know there’s a dark history with which to contend, and who knows if hope is going to hold?
Cosper: Yes, the president put on a suit, but he was a member of al-Qaeda. We’re in a place where we don’t have great faith and confidence that it’s a new day for the country.
Chitwood: The day that Syria was liberated, Syrians of all stripes here in Eisenach celebrated: cars going up and down the road, Syrian flags, music.
I went to get a haircut the next day because that’s where I talked to people from Syria and Iraq, Yazidis and Kurds, and people of all types coming from those conflict zones. As much as they celebrated the day before, the next day the sentiment was “We don’t know what comes next.” That feeling has persisted: simultaneous celebration at what could be but simultaneous apprehension about what they don’t know. The vast majority don’t want to head home right now, regardless of whether they are Christian or Yazidi or something else. They’re uncertain about their country’s future. They hope for the best, but they know they have it good here in Germany and want to remain.
Cosper: I’m glad you mentioned the Kurds and the Yazidis, especially. The Yazidi community in Syria and Iraq was brutally devastated by ISIS and ISIS-associated affiliates and other terror groups. They have been a profoundly persecuted minority across the Middle East. One would hope that whatever policy emerges here will take that into account.
