About 1.8 million refugees arrived in the EU last year. This unprecedented influx centred on few EU Member States and created three main challenges there: establishing the relevant infrastructure in terms of institutions, housing and similar areas, integrating refugees into host countries labour markets, and maintaining the social, cultural and political cohesion in the affected countries. On the basis of unpublished data on Germany, what can be said about Germany’s reception policy and the limits of EU asylum policy.