To read the headlines, one could conclude that Europe is a mess.
Its response to the historic wave of people now migrating from the Middle East and North Africa has been muddled and incoherent. There is a patchwork of different policies. Train stations in Budapest sell tickets, then close down, then reopen.
Borders of the supposedly borderless, 26-nation Schengen Area — normally just road signs along the highway — are suddenly patrolled again. Some EU countries are welcoming; others build walls to keep the migrants out
And yet … and yet.
There is a reason for this unprecedented human migration. A significant part of the Middle East is in flames. This is no place in which to find even a morsel to eat, let alone in which to raise your children.
When you are in Syria, and cities lie in rubble at your feet, Europe is the promised land. There is disorganization, and there is war.
In Europe, there is peace.
Here’s a quick look at the important countries in the current migration crisis:
Syria
A brutal civil war that began in 2011 has killed more than 300,000 people, reduced major cities to rubble and prompted more than 4 million people to run for their lives. The fighting shows no signs of abating. And if Bashar al-Assad is considered the brutal dictator, chief among his opponents is ISIS, the terrorist group whose member seem to go to sleep at night dreaming up new and crueler ways to murder people.
The United Nations says that Syria is now producing one-quarter of the refugees in the world. People are grabbing their children and running. Anything, it seems, would be better than staying.
Iraq
Iraq, one of the most important countries in the region, has been a fractured mess since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
In particular, sectarian politics pursued by the country’s leaders led to the alienation of Sunni leaders.
That, in turn, contributed to the takeover of swaths of northern Iraq by the terrorist group ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
That reign of terror is reported to have displaced more than 3.3 million people in Iraq — many of them fleeing to other countries.
Eritrea
This country on the Horn of Africa has, according to the international watchdog Human Rights Watch, a dismal human rights situation — a situation exacerbated by a military draft of indefinite duration.
And the two factors together has motivated thousands of Eritreans to flee the country every month — many headed for Europe, however bureaucratic and disorganized is it reported to be.
South Sudan
The world’s newest country is not doing so well.
South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011, has been riven by internal fighting.
And that has motivated a reported 2.2 million people to flee their homes, many seeking refuge in other countries, including in Europe.
Libya
And the downfall of the dictator Moammar Gadhafi, which Europe, with U.S. help, worked so hard to achieve, was supposed to fix everything?
It has not proven to be so. Fighting between rival militias is reported by the UN to have prompted 8,000 people to flee the country. And people from other countries have flocked to the Libyan coast to board boats bound for Europe, and many have died.
Afghanistan
Before Syria, Afghanistan spent decades atop the list of refugee-producing nations. At least 1.66 million Afghans submitted asylum applications in other countries in 2014.
And stability has yet to return to the country.
Per capita income in Afghanistan is $649, according to International Monetary Fund figures for 2014.
In Germany, it is $47,590 — 73 times greater than in Afghanistan.
Italy
With 4,700 miles of coastline — a length almost impossible to patrol — Italy has long been the initial landing point for an outsized share of refugees reaching the European Union.
The country, which is being asked to patrol the outer border of the EU, has repeatedly asked the European Union to help. But burden-sharing has been slow to happen.
Greece
With 8,500 miles of coastline, proximity to Turkey and the rest of the Middle East — part of which is in flames — Greece is the entry point by land and by sea of many migrants seeking refuge in the European Union.
With its well-documented financial problems, Greece is ill-equipped to stem the flow of humanity.
In any event, it is primarily a transit country — often for migrants who have made their way through Turkey — for those on their way to the EU’s wealthier countries.
Hungary
Hungary, a major transit point between Greece, to the south, and Germany, to the northwest, is planning to build a 13-foot-high fence, 110 miles long, along its border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants across its territory.
In the meantime, since Austria instituted border checks, Hungary has struggled to determine how best to deal with the flood of migrants it its capital, Budapest.
Few of the migrants want to stay in Hungary. The question is whether Hungary will be able — as it appears it wishes — to send the migrants along quickly to other countries.
Austria
Austria, a major transit country for migrants seeking to reach Germany, recently instituted border checks after the bodies of 71 refugees were discovered in the country in an abandoned truck that had traveled through Hungary.
This action has shaken the foundations of the Schengen Area, of which Austria is a member, in which there are no border checks to hinder the free movement of people — one of the pillars of the European Union.
Germany
One of the European Union’s wealthiest countries is also one of the EU’s most welcoming countries for migrants.
While migrants are supposed to apply for asylum in the first EU country they land in, Germany appears to have relaxed its policy. These changes include letting some migrants apply for asylum even without documentation.
Arrivals from the Middle East have been greeted in cities like Frankfurt and Munich with food and water, and offers of shelter and help.
Germany has an average annual income of $47,590 per person, compared with $1,606 for Syria.
France
The political powers that be in France, where the population is already 7.5% Muslim, are under pressure from the far-right National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen, to limit immigration.
The changing makeup of France’s population has for some years been a point of political conflict, reaching a major flashpoint earlier this year by the massacre carried out by Islamic extremists at the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
United Kingdom
The UK, which is not part of Europe’s border-free travel area, is working to stop migrants’ entering the country from Calais, France, through the Channel Tunnel.
As in France, Britain’s Conservative government is under pressure from the far right — in this case the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) — to sharply limit immigration, and the country is seeking to roll up the welcome mat and sharply limit migration.
Still, the UK appears to some migrants to be a land of opportunity. Many migrants camped outside Calais try to stow away on trucks bound for loading on trains to be shuttled across the English Channel.
And one man, Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, of Sudan, walked virtually the entire 31-mile length of the tunnel in August before being arrested.