The refugee flows from the Middle East, where grass-roots radicalization and arms training are widespread in the war-torn states, hold important security implications for the destination countries. Europe today is focused on the refugee crisis, with NATO instituting patrols in the Aegean Sea to intercept migrants trying to reach Greece. But in some years, Europe's focus could shift to internal security threats.
Indeed, the director of U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper has warned that the Islamic State terrorist group is infiltrating refugees escaping from Iraq and Syria so as to operate in the West. According to Clapper, Islamic State terrorists are "taking advantage of the torrent of migrants to insert operatives into that flow," adding that they are "pretty skilled at phony passports so they can travel ostensibly as legitimate travelers."
Germany, the prime destination of the current migrant flows, welcomed around 1 million refugees last year. But unlike the roughly 3 million migrants from Turkey that came to Germany from the 1960s onward to meet the demand for labor in the booming German economy, those arriving today are from countries battered by growing jihadi extremism and violence.