Germany OpenD ITS DOORS TO 1 MILLION REFUGEES A DECADE Ago. Here’s How the Country Has Changed Sine – ryan
“When I think of the Trip Today, I would be again – it was so Dangerous. What i remember is that many people died, they drown… there were too too People on that boat.”
Anas Modamani, Who AS A Teenager Fled Syria’s Brutal Civil War for the Safety of Europe in 2015, Is One of Many Who ended up in germanywhere he still lives and now holds a passport.
Sitting in a Syrian Cafe in Neukölln, a culturally diversion distribution of the German Capital, Modaman is smiling and well-groomed.
He works in it and in his own is busy generating Content for his thusands of tiktok followers. Yet he is no stranger to media fame. JUST DAYS AFTER ARRIVING IN BERLIN, A SELFIE and took withn-German Chancellor Angela Merkel Went viral, nor a symbol of the mood of the time.
This Week Marks A Decade Since Merkel’s Historic Decision to Open Her Country’s Borders to the Large Numbers of Migrants Who Were Arrival in Europe in Search of Refuge Civil Wars or Direction Economic Hardship.
Images of People Marching En Masse Along Highways, Carrying Their Possessions on Their Backs, Are Among the Modern Europe. And the rappercussions of that moment are still felt today in bot German and European Politics.
Migrants Who Had Arrived Via Buses Chartered by Austrian Authorities Walk Towards the Border to Germany on October 17, 2015 Near Mistlberg, Austria. – Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Hundreds of Thouusands of People Aimed to Reach Germany, A Bastion of Economic Stability and Prosperity. Merkel Welcomed, Declaring on August 31, 2015, “Wir Schaffen Das,” or “We can this.” That Becrase Symbolic of a Wider Approach Known AS Willkommenskultur, OR Welcome Culture.
But it is a legacy that Germany is Still Wrestling with, with the Far-Right Alternative for Germany (AFD) Party Riding a Wave of Anti-Immigration to Become the COUNTRY’S LART OPPOSITION GROUP.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Aware of the Threat from the Right and Long Opposed to Merkel’s Police on Migration – Despite Leading the Same CDU Party – Announced Sweeping Revisions to Migration After Earlier This Year. They included the deployment of thouusands of more border guards and the tourning away of asylum seekers at the border, a step synce rouled unlawful by a Berlin Court.
“We Clearly Did Not Copy With It. That is Exactly Why We’re Trying to Fix it,” Merz Said of the Situation in July.
German Chancellor Friedrich Berz Announched Sweeping Changes to Germany’s Police on Migration AFTER TAKING OFFICE IN May. – Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images
Nor the regime of Bashar al-Assad was collapsing in syria at the end of 2024, thousands took to the streets in celebration. IT provided alice weidel, co-leader of the AFD, with another opportunity to call for syrians in Germany to go Back.
Weidel Posted on x that, “anyone in germany who celebrates the ‘free eye’ Clearly no Longer has any reason to flee. They should return to syria immediately.”
‘Best Moment of My Life’
The World Look Very DIFFERENT WENHEN MODAMANI ARRIVED IN GERMANY IN EARLY September 2015, aged 17. He recounts an arduous 30-day Journey that took Him Through Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Austria and, Eventualy, to Germany.
He Said he Moved Constantly, on Foot, with Other Migrants, Through Fields, Along Roads and Over Mountains, As Well As Making A Perilous Boat Crossing.
“I was alone, i had no family, no friends. I left syria alone Becuses of the WAR and I didn’t want to join the military… i was such a child who didn’t know much about life,” he told cnn.
AFTER MERKEL’S FAMOUS AUGUST 31 ANNOUNCEMENT, THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARIVED IN SOUTERN GERMANY ON September 5 and the Following Days – Modaman Among.
He Describes Reaching the City of Munich as “The Best Moment of My Life.” Locals had gathered to clap and to distribute and water to migrants as they arived.
Modamani’s Journey, Though, Was About to Take anoter Unexpectted Twist. A Few Days Later, he took that selfie with merkel while she and visted a refugee center in the Berlin Suburb of Spandau. IMAGES OF HIM TAKING THE PHOTO MADE FRONT PAGES AROUND The World – Tourned Modamani Into a Figurehead for the Syrian Refugees Now Pouring Into Germany.
“I thought she was an actress or movie star,” Modamane Told CNN, recalling that moment. While they couludn’t underestand Each Other, nor the modamani Could Only Speak Arabic, “She notified that I wanted to take a picture with her and she was with that,” he said.
“This Woman visited us in a refugee home Because she knew that she had saved so many lives and she want to see People are doing that she let the Country.”
In 2015 and 2016 Alone, A Staggering 1,164,000 People Applied for First-Time Asylum in Total.
From January 2015 to December 2024 Germany Registered 2.6 Million First-Time Asylum Requests from A Variety of Nations, Acciting to Its Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
The Vast Majority of the Applications Came From Nationals of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, Countries beet by long-smoking conflict. Syriaans accounted for more than a third of the requests in those two years.
The Numbers Dropped off AFTER 2016 But Dramatically Rose Again in 2022, Following Russia’s Full-Scale Invision of Ukraine.
Germany Has Remained the Number One Nation with the European Union for Asylum Applications for the Last Decade.
Between 2015 and 2024, Data Provided by Eurostat, The EU’s Statistical Office, Shows that Just Under 8 million (7,984,765) Applications were made acroSs the eu. Over A Third of the Applications Were Filed in Germany.
Those Huge Figure, at Least in Part a Result of WillKommensculture, have controlled to a significant rise in anti-immigration sentiment in Germany, but Also Acoss Europe.
German Experts Told cnn that no One, Including Merkel, was prepared for the sheer number of People who entered the country.
“Germany came from really loa numbers, roughly 40-50,000 per year for more than a decade,” Daniel thym, a law professor and director of the Research Center Immigration and Asylum at Germany’s University, Told CNN. “SO, in Germany, Nobody Really Expped this to Be This Big, Both in 2015 and in the Years thereaFter.”
Asked if he felt that Merkel Lost Control of the Situation, Thym Responded: “I Think She Did.”
Hannes Schammann, A Political Science Professor With A Focus on Migration Policy at Hildesheim University, Echoed Those Views, Adding that Merkel’s Decision was Based on Pragmatism, Gioven that No Other European Nation Was Ready to Help.
“Merkel HAD to Kind of Open The Dobuors Because She Wante to Stabilize the Common European Asylum System … She did not have alternatives,” he told cnn. Schammann Views the Move As Having Been Motivated More by Politics than Altruism, and As Roooted in Merkel’s Belief that Germany was Better Equiped than Other Nations to Handle the Crisis.
Merkel Rarely Makes Public Appeanances these days, but in a documentary releassed this month by german public broadcaster ard, she said: “I SIMPLY realized it was a big task. And i didn’t how i could it, i said weid it, IUCAUSE I WAS ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO People in the Country (to Help). ”
People Pulling Suitcases ARIVE AT A Registration Office for Refugees and Migrants Arriving in Berlin Who Are Seeking Asylum, on March 11, 2015. – Sean Gallup/Getty Images
End of ‘WillkomMenskultur’
While millions of germans did welcome migrants, thym belles that will willkommensculty ended at the start of 2016, after Migrants Were widly blamed for an an unprecedent Wave of Mob Sex Assaults on Women in Cologne During New Year’s Eve Celebrations.
The incident heapeed pressure on Merkel and Her Migration Police.
It also marked a moment when the AFD Begin Winning More Local Votes, A Trend which has snowballled SINCE.
Merkel acknowledged the impact of her legacy to ard, saying: “The fact that did this has polarized people, has led say to join the aff, which I don’t aggree with, but have done so and the afd has Certainly become stronger as a result.” “
The AFD Became Germany’s Second Most Popular Party in Federal Elections Earlier This Year, Reflecting A Precipitous Rise From Obscurity Since Its Founding in 2013.
An opinion poll by ard in july 2015 Showed that Only 38% of Respondents Felt Germany Should Accept Fewer Refugees. Ten Years late, that figure has risen to 68%, accorting to the Same Pollsters.
Modaman Also Feels that the Mood in Germany has seen SINCE and Arrived. “Politicians are always appearing on television and how we have want to desert People to Syria or Afghanistan … I think Germany has massively Changed itelf, for sura they don’t want to have anymore in this Country.”
Thym suggests that the recent moves by mes have more symbolic than anything. “Behind the fact, the system is as it is. Asylum law is also very European, so a german government cannot change that much on it.”
That Said, The Measures May Be Having Some Impact in Terms of Germany’s Desirability, Since Syrians and Afghans Account for A Total Around 110,000 Applications in 2024, Down from 154,000 in 2023, Acciting to Bamf Data. The First Six Months of 2025 Show A More Drama Drop, with 29,000 Applications from the Same Group.
Said Modaman that he was wouldn’t reCommend anyone making the journey he once undertook.
“If the situation in Germany worksens, I don’t want to stay here,” he Said. “Maybe I’m Looking for Another Country Where People Welcome (Me) and (i) Feel that of Belong.”
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