Germany S Open Border Policy Is it Working

Germany's Migrant Crisis Starting from October 2014 to October 2015 European countries received an overwhelming influx of migrants from various countries. The word migrant describes a person who leaves home to seek life in a new country or region. Due to many economic, violence, abuse and poverty issues, people begin to migrate to places thought to be a safe haven. Most of the migration came from the inhabitants of Syria. Other countries that were soon to follow many of the Syrians were Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Albania, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Siberia and Ukraine.

Most of the migrants fleeing their countries are coming onto Europe claiming the asylum status. The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) was put into place to ensure the rights of refugees under the international law are protected. The system was out in place to set out minimum standards and procedures to process and assess asylum applications. Out of all the European countries Germany has the most migrants there and asylum requests. Germany has been the most welcoming as opposed to the other countries. They've committed to accepting 800,000 migrants in 2015 alone.

German officials feel that they're doing all that they can do morally, nothing more nor less. With recent attacks in Germany, such as the arson of the hostels where migrants where staying and muggings, President Joachim Gauck of Germany has called for full use of law enforcement on anyone using violence against new arrivals.

The focus of this paper will be seeing how Germans and migrants are coexisting, officials creating better laws for migrants and dissecting the decision for German officials' decision to accept and host so many of the migrants that have come. That tensions currently exist between Germans and migrants should come as no surprise. Germany has long been a nation that has had its own Germanic heritage, beliefs and ideals.

The arrival of nearly 1 million Muslim migrants in a year throughout the country has essentially created the conditions for a terrific culture-clash between Western Christian liberalism and Middle Eastern orthodox and sectarian Muslimism. Now, as news of violence on both sides of the crisis spreads, questions are being asked about whether this inflow of migrants into the country is a good thing, morally speaking.

Turner (2016) of The Wall Street Journal reports that public support for Angela Merkel and her open borders policy is turning, now that migrant attacks on Germas, rapes, and sexual assaults are becoming more commonplace (Kern, 2016). What all of this means is that the European Union ideal of a united Europe is at risk of collapsing under the strain of the migrant inflows, as countries like Germany begin to ponder closing borders in order to protect the nation's inhabitants as well as the nation's individual identity.

Germany's position in the EU as a major leader and representative of the Union is now being tested. The EU has always attempted to maintain the appearance of being a legitimate body of government by adopting such values as that stated in Article I-2 of its constitution: "The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights" (Elgstrom, Smith, 2006, p. 69).

Such ideals have a warm, familial sound to them and are generally accepted by Western nations as positive, but they are also rooted in a modern evolution of Western thought that has grown out of the liberal attitudes of the Enlightenment culture. In today's modern worlds, they almost seem at odds with what is happening in the world.

And as Hughes (2009) indicates, these very same values are often dubiously held by the leaders of the nations within the EU, as conflicts of interest emerge when they are followed, as can be seen in the case of Germany. Thus, what has led to the decision to accept so many migrants in Germany is the open borders initiative, which Merkel has often and loudly promoted in Europe.

Germany's stance is situated within the larger context of the various treaties established by the EU over the years, such as the Masstricht Treaty and the Treaty of Nice, as these have both been used to make the fundamental structure and interconnectedness of the EU more concrete manifest (Phinnemore, 2007, p. 41). This of course goes all the way back to the College of Europe and the formation of the Economic Community in the post-War era.

Bagnani, Granville and Soy (2015) have shown that the Treaty of Rome, which was signed in 1957 was the document that essentially set the European nations on a path of integration, causing the individual leaders of nations like Germany to trumpet the bugle call for a vision of unification -- "an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe" as the Treaty of Rome states. Thus, turning Europe into a federated state so that no one nation could pose a threat to any other was the main goal.

Only now the goal of integration appears to be threatened by the migration of so many ethnic and cultural outsiders into Europe that the European identity is being transformed in ways that make Europeans themselves very uncomfortable -- thus, the attacks on migrants, who are viewed as invaders and agents of rape, terrorism and sexual assault, are becoming more commonplace in Germany as a result of the clash of cultures. The situation has reached a boiling point, to be sure.

The UK has voiced its desire to leave the EU and Merkel of Germany has essentially publicly called their bluff. The desire by the British to close its borders to the rising tide of migrants has been so anathema to the ideals of the EU and its policy of open borders that Merkel has said that she would rather see UK exit the EU than see the EU change its open borders policy.

Yet, Merkel's hardcore stance in favor of the EU ideals set down years ago is now being put to the test as Germans, who stood behind Merkel just months ago now realize that the policies she represents may be more than they can culturally bear. Turner (2016) reports that "today, the hospitality is wearing thin" and indicate the welcoming mood of Germans to the Syrians fleeing the Middle East war zones has soured.

"As hundreds more arrive each day, Germans worry the influx will permanently change their towns and seed crime or terror" (Turner, 2016). In other words, what is now at stake in Germany is more than the upholding of a political ideal born of a political truce and a desire for unity in post-War Europe. What is now at stake is the idea of national character and identity -- an established way of life that German natives do not want to see disappear.

Never before was it believed that such a time could come when the open borders policy would be extended to Middle Easterners, migrating through Turkey into the European states -- but that time has come and it has come with a vengeance. Turner (2016) again states: "Ms. Merkel's power base, the centrist middle class sometimes called the Mittelschicht, is growing estranged from her and her generous policy" -- which means that she now stands alone amidst the overwhelming tide of migrants. The political consequence of this migration in Germany is fragmentation.

Germany's political democracy is now veering in different directions and the result could be a serious destabilization of "Europe's largest democracy" -- producing a nation that is "more introverted and less inclined to play the regional leadership role it has assumed" in recent years (Turner, 2016).

At the same time, the policy of ideals continues to be effected as laws are created and enforced in order to aid migrants in this most trying of times, as they are forced out of their homelands into foreign countries, whose inhabitants appear to be turning on them just months after providing a warm welcome. Germany already follows Articles of the EU's European Convention on Human Rights, which concerns the status of both citizens and aliens in member states.

Essentially, the ECHR looks after the rights of both citizens and aliens and views each as human beings who deserve to be treated with respect. Yet even here there are limitations to how far the ideals of the EU may stretch into the individual states like Germany.

For instance, when it comes to providing free health care to migrants, Article 3 could be held to be inapplicable should the state refuse in the end to grant entry or stay, as there is a cost associated with such care that could cause the state to be crippled outright by its exercise. Nonetheless, with so many laws and conflicting aims of federal and state-level constitutions, confusion reigns.

Thym (2008) notes that the ECHR has provided guidance on how the "private life" of migrants should be respected and how their autonomous rights should be protected: according to Article 8, the ECHR "widens the reach of human rights law to the legal conditions for leave to remain, effectively granting several applicants a human right to regularize their stay" (Thym, 2008, p. 87).

However, perhaps in a sign that even she is beginning to bend to the will of public opinion, Merkel recently announced that she would propose a law that would "make it easier to deport asylum-seekers who commit crimes" in the wake of the New Year's Even sexual assault by gangs of migrants on German women in Cologne (BBC News, 2016).

This attack was particularly heinous because of the nature of it -- as hundreds of migrants were witnessed sexually assaulting females on New Year's Eve in the German city of Cologne: it was reported around the world and in fact set off a firestorm of controversy in other European nations that were hosting migrants, with leaders calling for harsher terms regarding border controls and the deportation of migrants. Thus, the relationship between Germans and migrants today is one that has severely deteriorated over the past few months.

The strain, however, goes beyond the sensation that the Cologne attacks caused: there is a deep divide between the Western mentality that the average German possesses and the Middle Eastern and/or Muslim mentality that the average migrant possesses. Nonetheless, the attacks on Germany are off-set by the budding reaction of the right, expressed by Western leaders like Donald Trump, whose opposition to immigrants is represented by a loud voice of angry citizens in the U.S.

Germans on the left have reacted by labeling the opposition of the right to migrants as inflammatory "hate speech" -- and this labeling appeals to the still existent desire to maintain the ideals of the EU in Germany. Thus, German officials (at the same time that Merkel was attempting to take a harder line on migrant offenders) proposed taking action against perpetrators of "hate speech" against Muslim migrants.

As Faiola (2016) of The Washington Post reports, German officials "have reached a deal with Facebook, Google and Twitter to get tougher on offensive content, with the outlets agreeing to apply domestic laws, rather than their own corporate policies, to reviews of posts." In other words, there is a divide among Germans themselves between those who cling to the politically correct doctrine/ideals of the EU and those who seek to protect their national identity even if it means adopting a "hateful" approach to migrants whom they view as a threat to their way of life.

Because of the baggage, moreover, that Germany continues to carry as a result of its WW2 legacy, some of its inhabitants are especially sensitive to its role on the world stage. They do not want to be perceived as racist or hateful.

Other Germans, however, do not like the stance that their leaders take on "hate speech" and feel it is a violation of the right to free speech -- and that German officials are missing the point, which is that the migrants are negatively impacting the German culture by their sheer number (with the incident at Cologne serving as an appropriate example of what such a large number of migrants can do when they form into a mob).

Faiola (2016) reports that one upset German citizen has Tweeted his disfavor with the decision by German officials to work with social media corporations to crack down on hate speech against migrants in Germany, saying "It's not politically correct to say anything against migrants. We don't have freedom of opinion anymore. #Cologne." In other words, the divide is cultural and political in Germany. Can Germans and migrants co-exist? In some sense, they have been for years.

Five years ago, Germany had the highest Muslim population of any other country in Europe with nearly 5 million Muslims or 6% of the country's population being of that religious persuasion. This shows that Germany has been open to hosting Muslims and non-European ethnic cultures within its borders for years, upholding its end of the EU ideal.

The problem now is that the migrant inflows in recent months is due to controversial policies of Western leaders in the Middle East as a strategy of regime change in Syria has been attempted (and so far has apparently failed) is the main reason for the inflow. Frustration over the West's foreign policy in the Middle East as well as frustration over the EU's own fiscal policy, with Draghi of the European Central Bank continuing to promise.