Ethnic Minorities (FRG)

• Even before the inauguration of the EEC in 1957, the FRG sought to augment its labour supply with the recruitment of foreign workers, initially from the poorer southern European countries, such as Italy.
• In December 1955, a treaty was signed with Italy to bring in 100000 migrant workers within one year. The emphasis was on 'guest workers' - the idea was that they'd fulfil a contract for a given period and return home to be followed by others, creating a rotating cycle.
• There was no intention to give guest workers citizenship rights (the 1949 Basic Law asserted that German citizenship was based on German blood rather than years of residence). This meant that even if guest workers' children were born in the FRG, they wouldn't qualify for citizenship.
• The biggest growth was in workers recruited from Turkey. On 30th October 1961, the FRG and Turkey signed a labour recruitment agreement to take on Turkish workers. After receiving vaccinations and passing a medical fitness test, hundreds of thousands of Turks boarded trains in Ankara and Istanbul to the FRG. The workers arrived in Munich to be distributed among industrial centers. By 1986, 1.8 million guest workers from Turkey were in West Germany.
• By 1964, 33% of all guest workers were employed in the coal and steel industries and a further 25% in construction.
• As early as 1961, many realised guest workers would be a permanent fixture in the FRG economy and newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung told employers to treat them well, asserting that some firms' plans for expansion relied on the continued arrival of guest workers.
• At first, the guest worker scheme seemed to work well. There was a ready supply of would-be migrants and it was possible for some to commute, returning to their families at the weekends.
• Although the guest worker scheme was based on temporary work contracts, work opportunities were plentiful with a reputation for reliability and diligence meaning many renewed their contracts. Having done this for multiple years, some guest workers sought to bringing over their families.
• In October 1964, welcoming the millionth guest worker, the labour and social minister Theodor Blank recognised their economic value, inviting guest workers to bring their families to the FRG. He noted that DM50 million had been allocated for extending family accommodation for guest workers and their dependents. He also went on to assure they would have access to social welfare and child benefits.
• Many in the FRG had racist attitudes to facing the large number of guest workers. Guest workers were accused of taking jobs away from ethnic Germans and being a burden on the state.
• Many long-established guest workers had moved out of worker accommodation to live together. They settled in poorer urban areas as a result of economic necessity and many of these communities reflected their ethnic culture offering diversity and vibrancy that many citizens embraced, but by which others felt threatened.
• Problems began after the 1973 oil crisis. An immediate government response in November 1973 was to ban further recruitment of foreign workers. However, in 1975 states began to offer financial incentives for them to return home and imposed penalties for any illegal employment of foreign workers. This led to resentment among guest workers who felt scapegoated for the economic downturn by Germans who were looking for someone to blame.
• Children of guest workers who had possibly been born in the FRG were in a particularly difficult position - educated in German schools with German possibly as a first language, they were expected, once they were 18, to return to a country whose culture they knew little about.
• A report in November 1978 found that while guest worker crime rates were lower than those of the population as a whole, those of their children in the 14-18 group were higher and there was a powerful stereotype of foreign teenagers in violent gangs.
• 70% of children of guest workers failed to gain the Abitur at the end of their school career. This is due to schools having little provision to cater for children of guest workers. There were few language classes or assistance programmes in terms of orientation to German culture for those increasingly called second-generation migrants.
• More than 50% of guest workers' teenagers were unemployed, with little access to further education or apprenticeships due to lack of educational attainments. From 1st January 1977, the children of guest workers were not allowed to work in paid employment.
• The children of guest workers also faced possible deportation on their 18th birthday, especially if they had been convicted of any crime beforehand.
• An Education Ministry report of May 1980 highlighted concerns over Turkish wives of guest workers, with 80% being illiterate and isolated from all but family contact. It was found that when charitable groups set up German language and literacy classes, many Turkish women wanted to join, but their husbands were opposed.
• Far-right groups extended their attacks. Between October 1979 and October 1980, there were at least 6 bombings of Jewish memorials and guest worker accommodation, with two Vietnamese refugees being killed in an attack in Hamburg. There was also resentment against the growing number of asylum seekers from Turkey and developing countries.
• There is little doubt that many guest workers settled well into German life and took their place as German citizens once they were able to do so. In 1979, a government office was created to help guest workers.