When most of German society along with our chancellor Angela Merkel declared “refugees welcome” last summer, I was grateful, and – unusually for a left-thinking German like myself – proud of my country. Of course, it was always clear that this gesture was going to present a whole bunch of challenges. After discussing the administrative challenge (“Can we manage this”), we directly slipped into another one: the fears we might have about different cultures and habits.

Source: Cologne sex attacks: We Germans must not confuse the issues of sexual violence and immigration | Voices | The Independent