That means “invitation policy” and is a term that was recently coined by Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz to describe Germany’s refugee policy, or lack of it. Other countries other than us (as in US) don’t get what’s going on here, either.

“I definitely wish,” he said, “that we in Europe, Germany above all, start calling things by their right names and say loud and clear: This invitation policy has got to end.”

The irony is that most Germans wish that now, too but can’t seem to jump over their own shadows (as in deep and dark shadows of their guilt-ridden past).

I feel for them, really. Well, sort of. There is just way too much potential for inner conflict here. Germans can be as well-meaning and guilt-ridden as they want to be but, try as they might to welcome these refugees, they are up against some very powerful primal German character traits here (character disorders?): Xenophobia for one, for instance, being extremely territorial for two (ever seen a German house without a giant fence or hedge around it?) and thirdly, having the pressing need for German order – the most orderly kind of order there is, of course. Something’s got to give here, and guess what? It’s starting to give right now.

„Ich wünsche mir definitiv, dass wir in Europa, vor allem auch Deutschland, die Dinge endlich beim Namen nennen und klipp und klar sagen: Es braucht ein Ende der Einladungspolitik“