10 years of 'wir schaffen das'

Was Merkel right to open Germany's borders to refugees?

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

Ten years ago this week, Angela Merkel uttered three words that came to define her chancellorship.

With the phrase Wir schaffen das, Merkel sought to reassure the German public that the country would be able to manage the sharp rise in refugees arriving at its borders. Her words followed the discovery of dozens of refugees suffocated to death in the back of a lorry in Austria — a tragedy that had triggered a wave of sympathy for Syrians fleeing their country’s brutal war.

But the phrase quickly travelled far beyond Germany. Around the world it was read as an invitation, a signal that Germany’s borders were open to those escaping war.

In the months that followed, more than a million people, predominantly Syrians, arrived. The mass influx was eventually slowed in spring 2016 when Merkel struck a deal with Turkey: billions in EU funding in exchange for Ankara stemming the flow of people.

Even so, arrivals remained well above pre-2015 levels. Du…