Germans were remarkably naive on this topic about a year ago. They have changed their minds now, but it is wrong to say the public opinion wasn’t behind this damaging course then.
http://www.dw.com/en/survey-shows-half-of-all-germans-favor-taking-in-more-refugees/a-18405458
“The opinion poll conducted for ARD public television and released on Friday found that 50 percent of the Germans questioned were in favor of the country accepting more refugees. Forty-four percent of those asked in the survey, conducted by the Infratest dimap polling company, said they were opposed to the idea.”
“Sixty-two percent said they favored injecting increased funds to deploy more rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea, while 34 percent opposed the idea.”
“Around two-thirds of Germans (63 percent), said they opposed the idea of setting up blockades at sea for ships carrying would-be migrants, as the Australian authorities have done, while 32 percent thought this was a prudent course of action.”
IMHO the sea blockade is the key issue here as this would have been an effective way to stop the inflow.
As an observation, this is full circle on the 1930s and 40s, when Jewish refugees were regularly turned away from every port, and had to be smuggled into Mandatory Palestine for any chance to survive.
Here you have a population of refugees whose attitudes and morals actually make them a threat, whereas then you had a population that had a history of finding their feet quickly and becoming productive and innovative wherever they were allowed to take root.
The rapefugees are welcomed with open arms, and quickly give their hosts cause to regret their hospitality. There you had true refugees left with nowhere they could legally go, sometimes sunken in international waters, sometimes returned to their countries of origin where they faced certain persecution and probable death. Europe zigged when it should have zagged, and is now zagging when it should zig.