With refugee numbers on the rise, German political parties have been wrangling once again over which Balkan states to add to its list of "safe countries of origin." But whether there is any point to it is another matter. As conflicts abroad become refugee panics at home, Angela Merkel's government is reaching for time-worn methods of coping. Germany's list of "safe" countries of origin was controversially extended last year to include three Balkan states - Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia - (already on the list were all European Union states plus Ghana and Senegal).

The number of Kosovars asking for asylum has fallen by 94 percent in the last two months, according to a German official. Berlin has said the vast majority of migrants are economic, and will not be allowed to stay. During early February, German officials would get up 1,500 asylum request from Kosovars every day.

Women in Kosovo often fail to receive their inheritance. Albanian cultural traditions dating back to the Middle Ages, known as "Kanun", state that only men can own property. Kanun has long been officially obsolete. Yet many women find they have to go to court to fight for their inheritance. Local authorities and women's rights organizations are turning to advertizing campaigns to seek to enforce women's legal inheritance rights. But it's a difficult process.

In view of the current mass exodus from Kosovo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a fair distribution of asylum seekers within the European Union. The situation of refugees in the EU is "very unsatisfactory," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast, which was released on Saturday. Europe must "offer the refugees reasonable conditions at their place of arrival," Merkel continued. She also stressed the need to "develop a sense of fairness among the member states of the European Union" about taking in and supporting such individuals.

Germany has said it plans to send a number of police officers to join efforts to stem a tide of migrants from Kosovo trying to enter the EU. The exodus is posing problems for both Germany and Kosovo. Germany's interior ministry announced on Thursday that it was sending 20 Federal Police officers to border between Serbia and Hungary to help control a surge in the number of mainly Albanian Kosovars seeking to enter the European Union.

As Kosovo and Serbia resume EU-mediated talks on normalizing relations on Monday, the demonstrations in Pristina, the most significant unrest since the former province of Serbia declared independence in 2008, indicate that Kosovars' growing impatience may present a new hurdle to the dialogue. The protests were sparked by comments from an ethnic Serb minister in the Kosovo government and the government's delay of plans to nationalize Kosovo's largest mine after opposition from Serbia.

Head of Deutsche Welle’s Albanian service, Vilma Filaj-Ballvora, writes in an opinion piece that disagreements between political leaders in Kosovo seem to be matters of perception and irrational interpretations of the Constitutions by the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), on one hand, and the post-election coalition, on the other. The entire debate right now is being focused on the post of assembly speaker and is taking place in an atmosphere of distrust and contempt. “This is not how democracy functions”, declares Filaj-Ballvora.