Excerpt:
While many countries in Europe have sealed their borders to refugees, Germany has done the opposite. Last year, the country registered over 1 million asylum seekers, including 425,000 from ravaged Syria.
No other country in the European Union has accepted as many. For Syrians and others who risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in rubber dinghies, Germany has become a beacon of hope.
Though countless volunteers have helped to ease the asylum seekers' plight in 2015, not all Germans have offered their heartfelt welcome. Amid the groping incidents in Cologne on New Year's Eve as well as the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris, a growing number of Germans are calling for tighter controls on immigrants and increased border security.