In 2015, most Germans welcomed 890,000 refugees, in reaction to the horrors of the Syrian war. The media covered the plight of the refugees, and Chancellor Angela Merkel accepted the refugees stranded in inhospitable Hungary. An unprecedented wave of volunteers began to assist, and local governments and states provided accommodation. The federal asylum bureaucracy was less effective and could not process applications in due time. First hopes of an easy integration were disappointed, as it takes time to find jobs for refugees in the highly specialized German economy. Terrorist acts created fears, and the discourse became polarized. More than two years after the mass arrivals, the German public was more realistic but still active, engaging, and welcoming. Instead of following the complex bureaucratic processes, the German media personalized and created moral heroes and villains of the main politicians involved â especially Merkel. Based on an analysis of public opinion trends, media coverage, political statements, and implementation statistics, this chapter covers the variance and internal logics of political and administrative processes, citizen engagement, and the media.
Welcome Culture and the Person of the Year 2015
When Merkel said âWir schaffen dasâ (âWe can do thisâ) on August 31, 2015, she responded to a wave of goodwill and hospitality in the population and in the media. She herself suddenly became an icon of openness at a time when many other governments closed their borders. It was an ideal moment: A people united with their chancellor in active hospitality. A few weeks earlier, in an emotional meeting with a Palestinian girl at a school, Merkel had cautioned that Germany could not take in all the people in need in the world. She had been criticized as cold-hearted â the âice queenâ (Alexander, 2017: 32).
When Merkel agreed to let in the refugees on September 5, 2015, amidst the agonizing reports about smuggled refugees suffocated in an abandoned lorry in Austria, and the iconic picture of the little boy who drowned in the Aegean Sea and washed up onto the Turkish coast, she won the hearts of a great majority of Germans, and beyond. People were used to politicians warning against immigrants and trying to keep them out in one way or another. This time, however, the discourse turned on the idea that Germany had successfully integrated earlier waves of immigrants and was strong enough to do it again. Support for the refugees came from all walks of life: Church communities, students, schools, elderly people, business and trade unionists. Volunteers organized themselves spontaneously, and fascinatingly effectively, collecting and providing food, blankets, childrenâs toys â all the things needed â and giving emotional support. Surveys show 46% of the German population doing something for the refugees. Table 1.1 illustrates some of these activities, which continue to this day. Only 18% of the population said that they would not like to contribute anything (Ahrend, 2017). Elderly women remembered the harsh times after expulsion from their homes in the lost German territories in 1945â1946, and wanted to help, out of their own experience. Against the ever-present memory of the Nazi past, this was a kind of positive redemption (âMama Merkel,â 2015).
However, from the beginning, reactions were polarized: Against strong feelings of solidarity and the wish to help among the majority of the population, there developed deep-seated fear and hatred within a minority, particularly in the eastern parts of the country, the former GDR. The international echo was polarized, too. US President Barack Obama and then-candidate Donald Trump, to mention only the most prominent, praised and condemned Merkelâs hospitality, respectively.
Table 1.1 People who had supported or would support refugees, May 2016, in percent
| Activity | Already done | Could imagine |
| Donation in kind | 40 | 26 |
| Donated money | 21 | 25 |
| Distributed food or cloth | 19 | 47 |
| Support refugee center nearby | 12 | 44 |
| Helped with language | 9 | 37 |
| Accompanied with administration | 6 | 40 |
| Caring for children | 4 | 34 |
| Have refugees living in their home | 1 | 14 |
Germans were not alone in their largely positive reaction. In many European countries, activists began working to aid refugees. The Scottish government sent clothes and a symbolic 10,000 pounds to Munich â a protest against the negative stance of the British government (âWarme Kleidung,â 2015). Thousands of well-organized volunteers were active in Vienna as well as in Munich, and in many other places. The tragedy of the Syrian refugees spoke to the hearts. In fact, it was not Merkel but the Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, who first took the initiative to open the borders, and asked Merkel to back him up. However, Faymann was never able to acquire the same aura as his German colleague â even when Austria, like Sweden, took in more refugees per capita. Faymann was soon criticized by the right-wing opposition, and then by his conservative coalition partner. He resigned in May 2016. The Austrian grand coalition made daily headlines with internal quarrels and divisions. Austriaâs popular foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, was instrumental in closing the âBalkan route,â together with southeast European governments, arranging coordinated border controls, and particularly controls at the Greek-Macedonian border. Later he radicalized his position and came out with the idea of deporting all asylum seekers to an island or to Africa, modeled after the Australian policy. Thus he outflanked the traditional xenophobes, and his New Peopleâs Party (whose migration strategies are discussed in Chapter Three) won the October 2017 parliamentary elections.
In Germany, however, the opposition parties as well as the Social Democratic coalition partner supported Merkelâs stance. This was what they had always wanted: A hospitable Germany. Leftists suddenly felt sympathy for Merkel. She became the hero of âwelcome culture,â all the other politicians dwarfed besides her, even when Green politicians were even more enthusiastic in welcoming refugees. It did not matter that vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel had said âWir schaffen dasâ some days before Merkel (HeiĂler, 2016) â she was the chancellor, she had the stature, and she became Time magazineâs âPerson of the Year...
