The compulsory registration of aliens by many European states is a legacy of the second world war that was also enforced in Germany by the occupying powers - led by guess which nation...
In the European Police State that I come from, the people have resisted identification cards for years. British police don't routinely photograph and finger print crime suspects and only handcuff people when they are resisting arrest, not as a matter of normal procedure. Liberties are hard won and easily lost - you have to stick up for them. Even in Britain there are now moves afoot to issue ID cards but any attempt to impose them by law would cause uproar and could bring a government down. Recently the British were reduced to the indignity of putting their photgraphs on Driving Licences, but that was a result of 'Police State' EC regulations and wasn't accepted without a murmur by the British who grumbled over their tea for several days. Jolly British 'Scarlet Pimpernels' are only too happy to provide asylum to Johnny Foreigners fleeing the horrors of continental police states.
The British - especially those dwelling in the Province of Northern Ireland - have been the victims of terrorism for thirty years, much of it financed legally from the United States of America; a country which also provided political asylum to several wanted terrorists for many years, until America also fell victim to international terrorism. Despite that, the British have more or less successfully resisted unneccesary intrusions by The State into their privacy. At the conclusion of the second world war they actually held mass Identity Card burnings in the streets - though they were more circumspect with their ration books.
If you want to visit the real home of the brave and land of the free, try a trip to UK, Lu.
(but do keep irony mode in operation)