Overview

• Ten years after Merkel’s “Wir schaffen das,” former chancellery minister Peter Altmaier defends the core decisions of 2015 while calling the CDU’s fight over upper limits a political mistake.
• Altmaier told MDR Aktuell that about 86% of male refugees from that period are now in work and that most speak German.
• Angela Merkel told Augsburger Allgemeine that employment among male arrivals is now nearly on par with the overall population and reaffirmed that pushing people back at the border was unacceptable to her.
• The article notes that the AfD polled near 5% in summer 2015 and has since climbed to challenge the Union in surveys.
• Altmaier acknowledges that many still perceive unresolved problems but argues the country has, on balance, met the challenge posed by the 2015–2016 arrivals.