[throwaway1979]

I'm not well-versed in EU politics but I find some parts of what you say surprising. After Brexit, there were reports of racist signs some idiots had put up. These weren't against syrian refugees, but rather against a particular former eastern bloc country.

[luso_brazilian]

There is undoubtedly an uptick of xenophobic reactions by some groups in England, even against Portuguese studying and working there (friends of mine even). There is and there will always be a segment of the population that will behave like that, blaming their problems on the "others".

But I don't believe it would ever reach the current proportions in all of the EU without the current migrant crisis and the lack of proper coordinated response.

[digi_owl]

There never was and never will be coherence in regards to this. Think of copycat crimes as a similar phenomena. Its basically a venting of poorly defined anger and frustration against anything "different".