I have yet to read a more succinct description of the present situation than: "...the Middle East is basically moving to Europe after Germany did the national equivalent of advertising a house party on Facebook."
Whatever happened to critical thinking in foreign policy? - Spectator Blogs
The problem is simply scale. Our past experience was fundamentally different: refugees were few in number (Huguenots), migrants were actively sought (post-war Commonwealth) and asylum seekers were either small in number or their stay was temporary (1/4 million Belgians 1918-19, free passage home). The scale of the current crisis is of wholesale, permanent population transfer (who will return to Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan from Germany??) from countries whose total populations number in the hundreds of millions.
An effective remedy in the medium term is to effect a reasonable settlement in Syria (are dictators more intransigent these days with the spectre of The Hague looming in the retirement?). In the short term, I think the Turks have found themselves in a position of power over the EU.