LONDON -- British tabloids say the country is drowning in a "swarm of migrants." But the reality -- especially in comparison to Germany -- is quite different.
Not only are most of the "migrants" actually refugees, and that's more than just a semantic difference as David Miliband has recently pointed out, but the UK is receiving far fewer refugees than Germany.
In 2014, Germany received 202,645 applications for asylum while the UK got 31,745, according to recent figures from Eurostat.
That means Germany gets more than a third of the applications for asylum in the EU compared to the UK which gets a little more than 5%.
Of those applications, more than 47,000 were allowed to stay in Germany. The UK, allowed a little more than 14,000 people to stay -- less than a third of Germany, even if the British generally made more favorable decisions, when compared by percentage of the cases.
We've looked at the different responses in the two countries:
The politics
In general, Germany's response to the crisis has been largely positive -- even as the numbers of refugees have spiked this year. Some 800,000 are expected to seek asylum in Germany in 2015.
The country announced last week that all Syrian refugees were allowed to remain in the country, a decision that defies the EU's Dublin Regulation, which places responsibility for examining an asylum seeker's claim with the EU country that they first reach.
The Refugee Council’s advocacy manager, Anna Musgrave, said the move was "significant," adding: "It’s high time the British Government made a similar statement."
#Syria: Activists thank Germany's #Merkel for taking refugees. Poster mimics Assad slogan. Arabic reads: We love you. pic.twitter.com/tzWccRTeZa— Faisal Irshaid (@faisalirshaid) August 26, 2015
As the German tabloid Bild bluntly put it, when it comes to addressing the growing migrant and refugee crisis, the UK is one of the shirkers of the region.
An editorial in Monday's paper had prime minister David Cameron take his place among a rogue's gallery of leaders from Slovakia, Italy, France and Lithuania, just above another photo of the desperate human faces of the situation, and the country branded one of the quitters not facing up to its responsibilities.
#Britain are the 'slackers of #Europe' on refugees, taking 114 per 1m people, #Germany takes 905 says Bild newspaper pic.twitter.com/tDeRkGHZnQ— David Charter (@DavidCharter) August 31, 2015
In the damning editorial, Bild argues that the UK has only taken 114 refugees per one million inhabitants -- only a third of the average in the EU and significantly less that Germany's 905 per million.
As the Washington Post put it Britain takes in so few refugees from Syria they would fit on a subway train. (There have been numerous claims about how many Syrian refugees Britain has taken in. A good breakdown can be found here.)
When it comes to public statements, Germany has also been more progressive than the UK.
Chancellor Merkel recently visited a centre for asylum seekers in east Germany and declared: “There can be no tolerance of those who question the dignity of other people.”
On Monday, she called for Europe to work together to address the issue, co-ordinating the set-up of screening centres in Italy and Greece and a more shared responsibility when it comes to taking in refugees.
“If Europe fails on the question of refugees, if this close link with universal civil rights is broken, then it won’t be the Europe we wished for,” she said.
Meanwhile David Cameron was recently forced to defend himself after describing the migrants and refugees on the UK's doorstep as a "swarm."
Awful, dehumanising language from a world leader. https://t.co/PDc8ft179K— Refugee Council (@refugeecouncil) July 30, 2015
On Wednesday, he said that "taking more and more refugees" is not the answer. And so far, the UK has focussed on keeping refugees out of the country, pledging £7 million on new fencing and security at Calais, and discouraging them from heading here in the first place, by promising to seize the wages of illegal migrants amid other measures.
The media
As several have noted, there's a marked discrepancy in the rhetoric of the UK and Germany's tabloids towards migrants and refugees, with the relatively conservative Bild running with the headline "We help" recently while the Express continued talking about the "swarm" of migrants.
The Daily Mail, meanwhile, asked in July: "We kept out Hitler. Why can't our feeble leaders stop a few thousand exhausted migrants?"
Public sentiment - and actions
Grassroots groups have sprouted up with the aim of doing something to help the migrants stranded in Calais, with groups of people donating food and clothes. A petition to Theresa May entitled 'No more drownings. Immediate sanctuary for those fleeing from war' has 68,000 signatories, another insisting on medical help at Calais is also at 68,000, and a 'Solidarity with refugees' demonstration is planned for central London on Sept 12.
In Germany, there are similar groups. The Welcome Alliance for Refugees was established in Berlin in early 2014 as a forum for residents to help refugees living in the city. More than 1,000 people support the initiative and hundreds have signed up to help with schools, education, health issues and bureaucratic problems.
Refugees Welcome, meanwhile, is a house-sharing website pioneered in Berlin in November 2014, a sort of AirBnB for refugees that allows anyone with a spare room to offer the space to someone in need.
The welcome extends to the country's football teams. The Borussia Dortmund football club invited 220 refugees to its game on Thursday -- and documented their visit with the hashtag #refugeeswelcome.
220 Flüchtlinge des Projekts "Angekommen in Dortmund", zu Gast bei #bvbodd. #refugeeswelcome pic.twitter.com/CJA2QfmiAG— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) August 29, 2015
The same sentiment was expressed in several other football stadiums.
The #Bundesliga this weekend - pic.twitter.com/mNsN5T9owa— Gergely Polner (@eurocrat) August 30, 2015
Some observers have argued that Germany's past may play a part in the country's willingness to take in refugees, with people attempting to erase the deep, dark shadow cast by the Third Reich.
But one commentator noted that "a new form of civility is developing, one that isn't just being driven by pricks of conscience and the weight of the past. Rather it is fuelled by the joy of doing good."