This report analyzes four country-level case studies to examine the factors that have shaped countries’ ability to react to a sudden influx of asylum seekers or refugees, and demonstrates a spectrum of success in integration. The paper looks at three Arab countries—Lebanon, Tunisia, and Egypt—that have hosted large numbers of asylum seekers and refugees, particularly since 2011, and Germany, which willingly took on one million Syrian asylum seekers and refugees starting in 2015. Germany stands out in contrast to the other countries in this report for several reasons: it is neither in the Middle East nor bordering or near a conflict zone, it has a robust economy and sophisticated legal system for integrating refugees, and, foremost among its European neighbors, it willingly accepted the refugees, whereas others took them in largely involuntarily.