I work in Germany at the moment and have lived here on and off in the past. I've tried to follow these threads but have only managed to read half of the posts or so. The situation for the refugees in Germany is dire. On my housing estate converted a sports hall has been converted into a temporary home. A couple of bus stops up and down from us are further asylum centres. The hall on my estate houses only young men from the ME, there are about 160 of them there at any one time. They walk across the Estate in groups of at least 3, more often they are 6-8 men walking together so quite intimidating when you meet them as a single person, women, man or child, they will always outnumber you. So far, the ME men on our estate have been no trouble to my knowledge although there had been reports of an increase in break ins. However, I regularly see groups of these men near our local playground and supermarket, hanging about with nothing god do, staring at people and rather often some of these young men are totally drunk (i mean listless) sitting outside my local Lidl. I think this is bloody awful, they are young and have no or little future, smoking and drinking and waiting. Many look desperately alien and out of place not necessarily because of their ethnicity but raher because of how they are dressed (donated track suits), and how they appear destitute, downtrodden, lost and miserable. They are here but don't belong here. Their children will never really belong here and possibly their grandchildren neither. I say this as a daughter of an immigrant who, with the best education will still always feel a little bit out of place, that's what living in exile or migration does to most people. It kills people's identity.
To the people on here who are so bullish in their attempts to convince the rest of us that we must bring in refugees endlessly: it is my theory that these people (i.e. No border people) exhibit unconscious colonialist attitudes. They have no consideration for the absolute psychological challenges and damage migrating to the West means for many migrants, their children and grandchildren. These people loose their identity, community, dignity and authentic livelihoods. Even if a few migrants manage to make a decent life for themselves and their families they will always have lost something huge, the land of their parents, grandparents, greta grandparents, the assuredness of where they are from on a fundamental level. I know this, because I am one of these people who has lived in Europe for decades now but the sense of 'otherenss' is deeply engrained on my soul and will until the end. This is quite different to Brits and Germans going out to other countries where they might be 'others' because they comes as the privileged people, it cannot really be compared. So, in a twisted way, people from no borders advocate for something that is really quite harmful for the people they claim they are helping.
Why not help people to create strong economies and cease war to protect the people and protect their backgrounds and cultures in their home regions?