Germany, Refugee Nation

By Roger Cohen

Dec. 21, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/opinion/germany-refugee-nation.html?comments#permid=17007926

I personally support Angela Merkel in her refugee policy wholeheartedly. I was born in Germany, but have been a US citizen for almost 50 years, so it is somewhat discouraging for me to witness the US I immigrated to some 50 years ago with the frightened, xenophobic US of today. My mother, just turned 95 and still very alert, lives in Germany, and she is not so enthused about the refugees, mirroring the attitude of a significant minority of Germans. The US, with its right-wing fanaticism as expressed by most of the GOP candidates, is going the nationalistic, right-wing path of Hungary, Poland, even Denmark. Right-wing, anti-foreigner attitudes are increasing everywhere. It is interesting to note that media coverage in, for example Germany, is much more balanced than in the US, where the sensationalist fear-mongering of most 24-hour news outlets, and many other media outlets, exploits the fears of people to gain "ratings" and thus ad revenue - Obama is right in this regard, as reported this morning. It should not be underestimated how such unbalanced news reporting can easily cause the US to spiral into irrational fear and hateful actions. When audiences cheer the fear and war-mongering statements of the Trumps, Christies ("I will shoot down Russian planes in Syria") and others, then we are very close to xenophobic insanity. There is no proof that terrorists have been funneled into western countries as Syrian refugees - there are enough "locals" eager to participate now.