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The German chancellor is not entirely sure whether she would say the phrase again. Meanwhile, 460,000 refugees are seeking work in the country.
Angela Merkel was celebrated as a savior by incoming refugees (here in Munich) in 2015.
Presumably, Angela Merkel only wanted to encourage the population on August 31, 2015.
Germany is a strong country. We have achieved so much, we can do it! ”
The chancellor may not have guessed the iconic meaning of the sentence at the time. But the declaration shaped his chancery like no other.
Would you say your famous phrase from 2015 again today? Chancellor Angela Merkel 2015.
The events took place in the late summer of 2015. 71 refugees miserably suffocated in a refrigerated truck on an Austrian highway. The image of the drowned refugee boy Alan Kurdi went around the world. Tens of thousands of people were trapped in the Budapest train station. Merkel offered them a few days after her phrase “We created that” that they could come to Germany for now.
The wave of refugees hit the country with full force. Thousands cross borders every day. They were greeted with applause at the Munich train station, as refugee houses caught fire in many communities. Protests against the newcomers increased.
460,000 refugees are looking for work
The AfD went from the anti-euro party to the anti-migration party, with success. It is now in parliament in all 16 federal states, in the east it has values of more than 20 percent. The EU almost fell apart. The “refugee chancellor” Angela Merkel and Hungarian President Viktor Orban symbolically stood facing each other. One let tens of thousands into the country. The other erected barbed wire to detain the refugees.
And did Germany achieve “that”? Regarding the labor integration of refugees: yes. At least that’s what Herbert Brücker, who conducts research on the subject at the Institute for Labor Research, at the “Handelsblatt” says: “By the end of the year, a little less than half of those who moved in 2015 will be working, without Corona we would have reached the 50 percent mark. “If you look more closely, things don’t look so rosy: of those who have found work in Germany, 44 percent only do auxiliary work. In July 2020, according to the Federal Employment Agency, 460,000 refugees were looking for work.
Merkel probably wouldn’t say that today anymore
The aftermath of 2015 is also a financial burden for Germany: according to federal government estimates, spending on the refugee crisis has amounted to € 87.3 billion since 2016. In addition, there are another € 50.7 billion that the federal states had to spend to care for refugees.
And the society? Even five years after “We can do it,” there is still a gap. Criminal immigrants and terrorist attacks like the one on the Berlin Christmas market on December 19, 2016 have made many people suspicious of refugees and have lost confidence in the government. “What continues is a division of society between those who consider the 2015 path to be fundamentally wrong and those who defend it despite all the criticism,” former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said in a recent interview.
But the refugee crisis is no longer the dominant issue in Germany. The pressure has decreased notably, also due to the closure of the so-called Balkan route and thanks to the EU-Turkey refugee agreement. Last year, 600,000 people applied for asylum in the 27 EU countries, 142,500 of them in Germany. The numbers are likely to fall further this year. And Merkel? She is no longer so sure of the sentence, as she said in 2016. “But sometimes I also think that this sentence is a bit exaggerated. So much so that I hardly want to repeat it. “
“I understand the fears”
Adnan, 29, a refugee from Damascus in Berlin.
His parents pooled all the money they had so that he would not suffer the same fate as his brother: Adnan, a Syrian refugee in Berlin.
“On October 15, 2015, I arrived in Berlin. The return to Syria was impossible. They would have drafted me into the army like my brother. He has been missing since 2012. My parents pooled all their money to save me from my brother’s fate. It was very difficult at first in Berlin. I worked black people in a restaurant for four euros an hour. In 2016 I applied for asylum and was evaluated positively. After that, I was able to enroll in psychology at university in 2018 and received a scholarship from a foundation. I am incredibly grateful to Germany for the opportunity that was given to me. I too had to experience discrimination. My strategy is not to give these people a place in my life. But I can understand the fears of those people in Germany who fear that their culture will change due to the large number of refugees. What Merkel did for the refugees is unique. She gave us the opportunity to start a new life. ” (crb)
“Has Merkel gone crazy?”
Anja Tobias, 48, nurse from Leipzig
He fears the Islamization of Germany and has participated in Pegida demonstrations several times: Anja Tobias from Leipzig.
“After Merkel’s words, I thought: Sure, we have to help the few people who come. But then hundreds of thousands came. The acts of violence opened my eyes. I thought: For God’s sake, has Merkel gone crazy? That was a flagrant mistake on her part. I went to a Pegida demo twice. It was always said that there were Nazis and right-wing extremists there. But mostly there were older people who were worried about their future. Islamization in Germany has been going on for a long time. The federal government congratulates Ramadan, but has no words for its own people. Of course, there are also refugees who want to integrate and have a job. But most of it is hanging in the social hammock. The real refugees may be here. But they must learn the language and look for work so that later, when they return, they can help build their country. Take a look at our country, it’s totally divided since the fall of 2015. ” (crb)
