Journalist Explains Merkel’s Open-Door Refugee Policy

The humanitarian refugee policy adopted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel  and its implications were explained in a lecture held on April 26, 2016 by Palestinian author and journalist Hakam Abdel Hadi.Abdel Hadi said that Merkel’s personal and religious views has made her open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees, most of them from Syria.“As a pastor’s daughter whose Protestant ethics are said to be one of the defining characteristics of her more than 10-year tenure as chancellor of Germany, Merkel introduced a series of policies intended to expedite the asylum process for refugees,” he said in the lecture sponsored by the Ibrahim Abu Lughod Institute for International Studies“Germany has played a leading role in refugee protection. It welcomed more the 470,000 refugees, half of them from Syria,” Abdel Hadi continued. “This number raises a number of questions, particularly in the way Germany will cope with the refugee issue. The policy could be hurting Germany, especially that the large number of refugees will create a high population density.”“Looking at the bright side,” he added. “Hundreds of thousands of predominantly young people are trying to get into Europe, particularly Germany, where the population is older than in almost any other place on earth.”Abdel Hadi went on arguing that the refugee influx could be a long-term benefit to an aging Europe, renewing the supply of young workers on whom the continent’s retirees depend.