This is debated from time to time in Germany. I tend to think three things prevented Merkel from ever having written policy.
1. She’s not a true political figure...she’s a scientist-turned-professor-turned-politician. She’s never actually managed anything in her life...never been a mayor...governor...etc.
2. The intellectual crowd that runs Germany always saw immigration, asylum, and refugees as one single ‘color’ or concept. So they lumped the war-time Syrians/Iraqis into one bucket that was considered special. Once done, the Afghans and Pakistanis also jumped into the bucket. The Eritreans, the Africans, the Tunisians, the Moroccans, etc....all jumped into the same bucket. This intellectual could not view ten different groups and write a simple code to affect each group applying.
3. Finally, there was a massive public relations game played by the German public TV crowd (ARD, ZDF) and they sought to demonize anyone taking an opposite view in 2014 and 2015. You were ‘stupid’ if you opposed the Merkel plan (which was non-existent). All of this came to an end on 31 Dec 2015...in Koln, with the thousand-odd police reports turned in with groping and sexual assault on German women that night. The public TV news crowd was forced back a step or two. By Feb of 2016, it’s obvious that major actions have to occur.
So, we get to the only Merkel-invention...paying ‘baksheesh’ to Turkey’s Erdogan to hold back refugees from floating across to Greece. But she couldn’t pay it via Germany. So she went to the EU and convinced them to pay 3-billion Euro a year in ‘baksheesh’ to Erdogan this way. Don’t ever go to a German and suggest this bribe deal...they will go nuts. But it’s the ONLY thing that stopped the million refugees a year from coming to Germany.
I would add this as well...part of this whole story goes back to the 1.5 birth-rate issue (since the 1970s) and the fact that the 82-million German population is steadily decreasing. I think some of the intellectuals now believe this immigration thing is the only way left to hold the population at a certain level. Add to this...the guilt-trip thing still left over from WW II.
My final comment....all of this leads to an odd coalition trap because the FDP (one of the two partners discussed in this next government)...is demanding a Canadian-like program for immigration involving ‘points’. This will really go a long way in fixing the program....but I have doubts that Merkel herself....of the Green Party (to be partner number two in this coalition)....will agree to the ‘points’ program.
It's even worse than that. At the core of Internationalist ideologies (both socialist and "capitalist") is the belief that there is no such thing as nationhood, so that the demographic displacement of Germans by Middle Eastern and African peoples, far from being a problem, is something inherently desirable. I also disagree with your assessment of Merkel not being a political figure. Regardless of her background, she is thoroughly committed to the internationalist views at the core of the EU. In that sense she is an ideologue.
Another reason is Merkel is beholden to the big, successful German corporations.
The corporations have a voracious need for cheap immigrant (slave) labor. To Hell with the cares of the German people and the German cultural suicide that this is causing — they say...
Instead, they can reap the profit$$ from all that cheap labor and Germany can continue to remain the economic powerhouse it has been. Without any new/young labor and an aging population, German economic power was threatened.
It’s all about “corporate greed” - something the arrogant Left-leaning Germans think they are so above.
Greedy globalist liberals.