Dalai Lama: Germany cannot become an Arab country. Germany is Germany.

The Dalai Lama has given an interview to a German newspaper in which he expressed intelligent concerns about Germany's open borders refugee policy. Here is the complete text:

Interviewer: What do you feel about the present refugee crisis in Europe?

Dalai Lama: When we look into the face of every single refugee, especially the children and women, we feel their suffering. A person who is better off has the responsibility to help them. On the other hand, there are now too many. Europe, for example Germany, cannot become an Arab country. Germany is Germany. There are so many, that it is difficult in practice. Also, looked at morally I think that these refugees should only be accepted temporarily. The aim should be that they return and help with the reconstruction of their own countries.

He is combining a concern for the refugees (he doesn't recognise that many are economic migrants); with a practical concern about the scale of the influx; with a moral concern that nations are able to retain their own distinctive character; and with another moral concern that people work for the benefit of their own nations.

It's a more sophisticated position than we usually get from our own church or political leaders.