When Farah, Helen, Mohammed and Sara arrived in the small German town of Goslar last year, what the four child refugees saw could not have been more different than the life they’d left behind in war-torn Syria....

But in Goslar, a picturesque town of just 50,000, Mayor Oliver Junk is trying to counter the anti-immigrant sentiment growing not just in Germany, but across much of Europe. With Goslar’s population shrinking by around 2,000 people per year as young people flee to bigger cities and older residents die, Junk sees refugees as key to the town’s future.

“Europeans must welcome and integrate refugees, accepting that they are not a burden but a great opportunity,” Junk wrote in an op-ed published last month in the policy journal Europe’s World. “We have to keep sight of the most essential issue: to support refugees is our most fundamental humanitarian duty.”

Junk, a lawyer by training and a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats party, says refugees can revive Goslar’s economy by moving into empty houses and applying for jobs that have gone unfilled. Schools have closed in Goslar, and in some parts of town, homes are either sitting empty or have been demolished.