Across Europe, countries are trying to deal with the escalating crisis of asylum seekers coming from war torn Syria and Iraq. Ships carrying the migrants are docking every day in Greece and Turkey and trains are overflowing with immigrants making their way north to Austria, Germany, and Sweden - three countries with the most liberal asylum policies.

In Germany, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel says they can receive up to 500,000 refugees a year for several years. But Germany is coming under increasing fire from other countries in the EU who believe their overly generous settlement policies are making the crisis worse by enticing more and more refugees to make the dangerous journey to Europe.

Washington Post:

Further up the route traveled by the majority of migrants entering the continent, a record 7,000 Syrians reached the Greek border with Macedonia, the U.N. refu­gee agency reported Tuesday. Greek television broadcast chaotic scenes as migrants struggled to cross.

And on the border between Hungary and Serbia, migrants slept in an open field after clashing with police the day before. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who ousted his defense minister late Monday over a missed deadline for building a border fence, told the newspaper Magyar Idok that the government would speed up construction.

Gabriel said that other European nations needed to do more to address the crisis, even as Britain and France — two nations criticized for not doing enough — pledged to take in tens of thousands of asylum seekers.

Germany — the nation taking in the lion’s share, an estimated 800,000 by year’s end — has continued to lead the way. The government pledged Monday to hire 3,000 more police officers and spend $6.7 billion more to address the crisis, including emergency housing for 150,000 people.

Yet even as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her nation should be “proud” of its response, other European leaders and domestic critics blamed Germany — as well as similarly generous nations such as Sweden — for offering benefits so lucrative that they had become an incentive for asylum seekers to risk their lives over land and sea.

Germany responded to the criticism Monday by announcing a reduction in cash handouts for asylum seekers during their initial months of processing, instead saying it would offer them more food stamps and in-kind aid.

Berlin also said it would push to have western Balkan countries such as Kosovo declared “safe” in a bid to weed out the many thousands of migrants now claiming asylum from countries not at war.

The German maneuvers reflected the complex nature of Europe’s migrant crisis, in which desperate Syrians and Iraqis are searching for sanctuary in the wealthy countries of Europe’s core along with a host of economic migrants pouring in from countries as far-flung as Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Germans are not differentiating between those seeking to escape violence in the Middle East and those who are escaping poverty. Indeed, I would guess that many of the migrants who say they are fleeing war are actually looking to start a new life in Europe - with considerable help from EU taxpayers.

Mohammed Mazher Alkilany, 28, a former PR consultant for the Damascus tourism board who is living in a temporary shelter in east Berlin, said his family of three is living on 233 euros a month provided by the government — a sum he described as too little to cover the cost of warm clothes and blankets for the coming winter.

But they are also living in free temporary housing in a building outfitted with a playground and rooms with shared kitchens, bathrooms and washing machines. He insisted, though, that he did not come to Germany simply for its generous benefits.

The German government has budgeted 6.7 billion euros to pay for their generosity. And that amount only includes immigrants who have arrived this year. With no sign that the flood of humanity will ease in the coming months, the German taxpayer can expect to see that amount rise considerably.

Why no backlash? One can imagine the reaction in the US if President Obama tried to do something similar. But in Europe - at the moment - people are actually proud of how generous their governments are being. Even though Islamic State has said they have sent thousands of jihadis to infiltrate, security and common sense takes second place to their enlightened self image.

In the end, these policies will only speed the end of Christian European civilization which has been the drea of Euro-leftists for several generations.