We must be precise when talking about immigration problems in Europe, especially Germany. Migration from most parts of the EU doesn't seem to be that much of a problem and is widely accepted, except from the very poor parts, e.g. the Balkans. Welfare tourism from these countries is clearly a visible and existing phenomenon, and it meets considerably resistance from a native population that is more and more under economic pressure from stagnating wages, underfinanced public services, increased economic stratification and a shrinking social net. The official narrative that "the government cannot afford to give more help, we already have to much welfare" makes any newcomers direct competitors for the growing lower class. Huge numbers of unemployed, underemployed and full time workers as well as pensioners get only enough to cover necessities for living, and often less due to "motivating" regulations. I have personally seen how old people, that depend on collecting bottles in the park for the deposit, now have to compete against organized groups of immigrants, who deprive them of this income. The newcomers are overwhelming the health system, waiting times for non-GPs are on the order of 2-3 months. These are not theoretical issues. A large part of our society has a direct and clearly attributable welfare loss, even though it might not show up in any statistic or economic Model (bottle deposit!) and is therefore often dismissed as irrational or xenophobic.

The arrival of 1 mio.+ people from basically third world countries turned the problems up to 11. At the Moment public sentiment is still contained by a sometimes self-censoring press as well as the narrative, that the alternative for the newcomers would be prosecution or death. As soon as people realize, that we are luring people into playing russian Roulette by making them leave poor, but safe non-conflict countries for a chance of a higher standard of living, the shit will really hit the fan (with over 30000 drowned people in the last three years our asylum laws have probably already killed more people than they saved). Adding to that are constantly growing estimates about the total economic cost. Recent economic projections are giving long-term (decades) costs of 20000 billion Euros.

Fear of rising xenophobic and racisms has led to a restriction of the political discourse, so there is not even a debate about alternative ways of helping people fleeing crisis areas, also because senior politicians refuse to walk back from former statements and position. This is an extremely unhealthy political situation that is - for the moment- only held down by the marginalisation of critics as xenophobic and extremist. I'm not sure this can be contained indefinitly. Recently i saw the first mainstream publication accusing Merkel of "living in a virtual reality". I fear a significant move to the political right.