As a Canadian, who's been living in Germany for the past 3 years (and sees no return in sight) I thought I would share my perspective as a primary source about what's going on in Europe. You really have to distinguish between "economic" migrants and actual refugees.
First off, the majority of the German population is against uncontrolled immigration with no limits or selection criteria. Nonetheless that's not what the German press or government what you to hear. In fact in the past few years people simply do not believe the mainstream media anymore that they've started to refer to it as die Luegenpresse (lying press). I recall reading one article in the Suddeutschezeitung which claimed that 70 % of Germans were in favour of welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees this year alone. Then you saw hundreds of comments saying how that's BS. The comments on the internet are generally 80 %+ negative towards these types of policies while the positive ones usually get a 4-1 dislike to like ratio. It's quite astonishing because in Germany any type of opposition to this type of immigration has been perceived for decades to be reminiscent of Nazism or racial hatred, which could land you in jail here. As a result many online newspapers don't allow comments anymore for articles having to do with refugees. In addition to that Merkel has met with Facebook and demanded that they censor any comments she deems as being "anti refugee" and she also intends to pass a law to criminalize any criticism of bringing over refugees as a Volksverhetzung (racial hatred).
Second I've passed by Keleti train station about a month ago and the great majority of the refugees are actually young men in their 20s or 30s. Whatever happened to women and children first? I see the same situation in Cologne as well. Walking by a refugee house in Koeln-Weiden I was astonished at how few families I saw but it was rather occupied by young men. A girlfriend of mine was actually attacked randomly by two "Arab" looking men that didn't speak any German; luckily she was able to fight them due to her athleticism and pepper spray but if they had been a couple of 2 meter tall Eritreans, she might not have been so lucky. And that's a reality, a lot of German people are afraid to walk the streets in certain neighbourhoods and fear for the future of their country. Because let's be realistic a million asylum applications in one year? It's quite possible that Germany gets 5 million refugees in the next 5 years. And why do they all want to go to Germany? Quite simply because in Germany asylum applicants, after their application is accepted, will be eligible for Hartz IV (a social welfare program in which the government pays for your accommodations and gives you 400 Euros a months). And the German taxpayer has to pay for all this after already being taxed 50 %.
That being said, I think Canada should be selective with the refugees they take (and only refugees no illegal economic migrants). Preferred would be families with a high level of education that show willingness to integrate. Criminal record and medical screenings should take place, which don't in Germany. In fact refugees that commit violent crimes are not so easily deported here. If we, Canadians, take everybody without any screenings, don't expect the migrants to be so tolerant. We need to apply our point system in this case.
. It’s only a coincidence that these migrants risk their lives even further by marching from the safety of Greece to Germany huh?
