http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2015/09/migrant_crisis_in_europe_the_refugee_convention_of_1951_and_why_the_eu_can.html

The refugees pouring into Europe are no threat to the people who live there, but they do threaten something of considerable importance—the European Idea. This is the idea that neighboring countries can coexist peacefully within political structures that transcend national boundaries. For many decades, the Europeans held out their political system as a model for the world to follow. If they could yield their national sovereignty to transnational courts and administrative bodies, why couldn’t the rest of us? The refugee crisis, coming on the heels of the Greek debt crisis, exposes new cracks in this model and teaches important lessons about the limits of international cooperation.