About Germany.
I don't agree with, what the police did, but in the same time I understand the government's desperation.
Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and because of that, there's a very low taxpayer to retired people ratio.
Germany is so desperate to get more immigrants, and turn them into taxpayers, that it ends up doing stupid things.
Actually, what the US is doing is worse, because the police is an authority, and not being able to criticize an authority is way worse, than not being able to criticize immigrants.
Sorry but your portrayal of why people in europe are frustrated or afraid of the current situation is completely wrong, it's so far off that it's almost funny. I'll try to keep this short and try to remain unbiased.
People are not frustrated or fed up with refugees because they don't want to drink beer or eat pork, there have been several cases of rape, attacks, sexual assault, etc. perpetrated by refugees. There have been fights among different groups/ethnicities within refugee camps, all of this contributes to an overall picture that obviously doesn't sit well with the public. Furthermore there have been cases where specific help groups (refugees welcome and I think a group within the green party in germany) actively tried to hide crimes committed by refugees, to sweep these things under the rug as to not "damage their image".
This, combined with the fact that some people try to portray anyone who is even remotely criticizing refugees as Nazis, has made the general public pretty damn angry. I think the situation in germany is different, but hearing the normal working class austrian (and also quite a few of the volunteer helpers) on the streets seems to paint a pretty clear picture. People are fed up with this.
A few other problems include the fact that actually most modern Austrians are not religious. They were probably baptised and they celebrate christmas, but nobody visits churches anymore, nobody actually cares about religion. For all intents and purposes, these people are non-religious and fairly modern. And then you confront them with groups of people that are portrayed as deeply religious, people that act based on faith and not based on logic or the rules we have set in society.
I could go on for a long time, language barriers, the ongoing economical crisis, lies by the governments, unemployment, people from other countries that aren't even at war coming as "refugees", terrorism, you name it. Serious issues that are, in the eyes of the public, all somewhat related to this topic.
To wrap this up, this is the feeling and overall tension you can grasp right now where I live (which is vienna, the biggest city in austria). This is what I can gather from the general public, from everyday people I meet regularly, and how I see their reactions. This is why, in my eyes, people are fed up and think these things, this is what most people would bring up as arguments or reasons why they thing the way they do. Etc. None of this is my opinion, and I'm absolutely serious about that. My view on the matter is more complex and would never fit in a few small paragraphs.
Haha the Verge totally Brittaed thier Brita advert
There are not such data...The most infamous incident was in Cologne and almost all of the perpetrators that were charged were people that were already in the country before the refugee crisis or people pretending to be refugees that were not actually.
This la always the case in every refugee camp in the world not matter the ethnicity. A refugee camp is not a hotel. There are people escaping war that share a very small space with people that would never mingle with otherwise and from different classes and ideas and constantly under watchful control. Of course there will be fights and tension. Its human. When the dutch made a survey on the situation the increase in incidents inside camps suggest that criminality in the camp populations are not that different than the rest of society.
All attacks were carried by French or Belgian citizens. Some living in the country for decades. Not refugees.
A portion of people are fed up based on a feeling that is not true, indeed adding to other things you already mentioned (language barriers, the ongoing economical crisis, lies by the governments, unemployment,). That does not excuse people to develop isolationist and bigoted behaviours and for countries to violate human right conventions. We are talking about a million refugees in an continent of 500 million people. That is 0.2% of the total population. It is an amazing failure that we cannot handle that as a continent.
BTW i am not trying to excuse the German police though. What they are doing is crazy and undemocratic to the end.
That's because of this:
There's no data, because most crimes are not officially reported.
Can you please link an article or something, to prove this?
The Wikipedia Article says the opposite:
April 2016, Praterstern Vienna. 3 confirmed refugees (16-17 years old) from Afghanistan brutally raped a woman at a public restroom. All 3 of them are in custody, all 3 have been identified by the woman, 2 of them have pleaded guilty. Just 1 example. Most articles are in german, this one is from one of our more reputable newsletters: http://derstandard.at/2000035709183/Vergewaltigung-am-Praterstern-Alle-drei-Tatverdaechtige-in-U-Haft
You are factually wrong on this one, even though whether it's true or not was never my point.
That doesn't help, the only thing people hear and see are people behaving in very unfavorable ways. Again, not my point, I don't think you understood what I was trying to convey with my post.
And again, that doesn't help with the fear people feel and the questions of what could happen if they let "more of them" in. Read my post, it is not my opinion nor do I claim that every single point is true. I thought that I made that abundantly clear.
There is data, I provided some earlier in my post.
Selin Gören was the rape victim that tried to shield her attackers because she was afraid that it could make refugees look bad. You can find lots of articles and interviews on her.
http://nl.b2.mk/news/?newsid=eM8
I am not sure i can find a english version of the result but I will try.
This talks about non-native dutch that are already dutch residents or citizens. Not refugee populations.
It also says this:
The ethnic composition of the perpetrators was: native Dutch - 37%;
Moroccans - 14%; Unknown origin - 14%; "other non-Westerners" - 9%;
Turkish - 8%; Surinamese - 7%; Antillean - 7%; and "other Westerners" -
4%.[
These are incidents. Not statistics showing a general trend. All populations have criminal elements...No matter the ethnicity. This far off than saying that most refugees are criminals.
Which I never claimed, which was never the angle I structured my entire post around, which is not what I'm trying to say in any way. None of this has actually been in response to my post, read it again if you really think that I'm trying to state facts here (despite for the factual cases I brought up).
ok fair enough....I misunderstood...
No problem, this is a heated debate all over europe, I know that it gets emotional very quickly. I'm just glad we could sort it out and actually remain calm. Maybe I should add another giant disclaimer at the beginning of the post.
It also says:
Analysis of police data for 2002 by ethnicity showed that 37.5 percent of all crime suspects living in the Netherlands were of foreign origin (including those of the second generation), almost twice as high as the share of immigrants in the Dutch population
Most of the non-native dutch, that are in these statistics, are from muslim countries, just like the refugees.
Just to clarify, I'm not against immigration (I'm an immigrant myself), I just have a problem with muslim immigrants, because most muslims have a more literal interpretation of their religion, whereas most christians, are not actual christians, because they cherry pick the good stuff, and leave out the bad stuff, that's in the Bible, like the endorsement of slavery.
That is a grave oversimplification. There are different populations from different countries. Correlation does not imply causation.
Do not assume that all Muslim populations are the same btw. Just as in the Christian world there is a stupid amount of diversity between faith branches and nations. You cannot generalize like that.
You are describing the fundamentalist branches, which indeed tend to be the more vocal part. Which are not that different than their counterparts in other religions. If you check places like Jordan for example, or branches like the Alevites in turkey you will find pretty much the same cherry picking as you will find in the Christian side you are describing.
Moroccans accounted for 14% of all perpetrators, but the population of the Netherlands only has 2.2% moroccans.
Morocco is a muslim country.
There are muslims, who call themselves moderate, but compared with most chistians, they're a lot less moderate.
This is a collection of studies, which show, that there's a very high percentage of muslims, who support violence:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/opinion-polls.aspx
Also, take a look at these images.
Now, I know, that there are also some crazy christians as well, but they're a very small minority.
That bit about Germany was ill informed, please don't speculate like that.
"The really unfortunate thing here is that a lot of people are stupid and they have no idea." - Wendell
reminds of this:
Where does Logan get his desktop wallpapers?
They always amaze me.
Just google some cyberpunk concept art. You'll find similar images.