Part of our “new normal” is now visible. Soldiers have been protecting our synagogues and mosques for a year. We learned to open our bags for a security guard; now we also open our coats to show we are not hiding an explosive belt. The chiefs of police and emergency services have reassessed their priorities; editors have reassigned reporters. French Jews are debating whether to give up wearing a yarmulke following the terrorist slashing of a Jewish teacher in Marseille, or keep it on, defiantly: In a poll, 70 percent of the French say they should keep it. Germany has hired 8,500 teachers to help with some 200,000 children of foreign refugees entering the school system this year.

Politicians are busy reviewing legislation to give more powers to anti-terrorist forces. To deter migrants, Sweden has imposed checks on its border with Denmark, which has in turn imposed checks on its border with Germany. Proposals that would have seemed completely off the wall a year ago are now being discussed in all seriousness, like seizing cash and valuables from asylum seekers (Denmark), interning those who arrive without passports (Germany), or stripping French citizenship from dual nationals convicted of terrorist acts.

Terrorism and Europe’s biggest migration crisis since World War II frame the political debate in and among many E.U. countries. These twin problems also present formidable challenges for Brussels. All agree that the Union’s external borders should be secured, but who will secure them? All agree that national intelligence services don’t cooperate closely enough, but who will cede sovereignty on this sensitive activity? There is no common immigration or asylum policy, but how can we agree on one?

Beneath the surface of the new normal lie even more uncomfortable challenges. The public reaction to this situation, particularly in France and Germany, reveals a crucial dilemma: How, as a society, do we make necessary adjustments without betraying the values that define us? This question is at the heart of a passionate debate in France over where to stop the pendulum’s swing between security and liberty; many of those who cherish their liberties struggle with the feeling that, at the moment, they value their security even more. Political elites may hate it, but polls show that proposals like depriving certain terrorists of French citizenship enjoy popular support.