https://digivn.dw.com/view/250828-09-0593

((Suggested lead: Refugees and migrants feel increasingly unwelcome in Germany - according to a new study from the country's DIW institute. The wide-ranging study - which covers the years up until 2023 - says that while 84 percent of migrants felt welcome in 2017, only 65 percent felt that way in 2023. It comes as Germany marks ten years since Angela Merkel welcomed refugees, saying 'Wir schaffen das', or 'we can do it.'))

Lower thirds:

1:20  Nebal Altabi / Syrian Refugee and German Citizen
1:48  Hartwig Puhlmann / Retired Policeman & Soccer Trainer
1:58  Angela Merkel / Former German Chancellor
2:23  Report by / Ralph Martin

Script:

This was Germany back in 2015 – open arms and open hearts for refugees. Now, increasingly often, they encounter closed doors and rising tensions. 

:10 
In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Wir haben so viel geschafft, wir schaffen das." We can do it. Many in Germany agreed. More people applied for political asylum that year than ever before. Most came from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. 

Some Germans felt overwhelmed. Others, afraid.  Or even hostile. 

:33
SOT "We’ve been dealing with refugees for ten years. That’s enough." 

:38 
Support for the far-right has surged. 1 in 5 Germans voted for the  Alternative for Germany party, or AfD. Violent crimes linked to refugees have raised tensions and the political stakes. And yet, Germany has an acute labor shortage and NEEDS migration to keep its economy going.

1:00
Today, around 3.5 million refugees live in Germany. Many have built new lives here. The majority of those who arrived in 2015 have found work. Like this family that fled war-torn Syria and have become German citizens - the dream for almost all refugees, according to recent studies. 

1:19 SOT  Nebal Altabl
"We have done everything that we should have done, and because of that we made it."

1:28 
But some who work closely with refugee communities say much MORE needs to be done to integrate them - and to reduce tensions within local communities. This retired policeman works to bridge gaps between a refuee housing center and the nearby town in northern Germany.

1:47 SOT 
"Ich glaube, manche Politiker, sehen nicht genau was vor Ort geleistet werden muss." 

1:53   Former Chancellor Merkel isn't expressing any regrets. 

1:58  SOT Merkel
" The fact that I did this has polarized people, has led them to join the AfD, which I don`t agree with, but they have done so and the AfD has certainly become stronger as a result. But is that a reason for me not to make a decision that I think is important, that I think is right, that I thought was reasonable at the time, that I thought was humane?"

Germany is still sorting out the consequences of that decision - at the political level and across society.

END