Gastarbeiter - West Germany

West Germany

During the 1950s and 1960s, West Germany signed bilateral recruitment agreements with Italy in 1955, Greece in 1960, Turkey in 1961, Morocco in 1963, Portugal in 1964, Tunisia in 1965 and Yugoslavia in 1968. These agreements allowed the recruitment of Gastarbeiter to work in the industrial sector for jobs that required few qualifications.

There were several reasons for signing those contracts. First of all during the 1950s Germany experienced a so-called Wirtschaftswunder "economic miracle" and needed laborers. The labour shortage was made more acute by the creation of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, which reduced the large-scale flow of East German immigration virtually to zero overnight. Besides this the Federal Republic saw it as a form of developmental aid. It was hoped that the Gastarbeiter would learn useful skills in Germany, which could help them build their home countries after returning home.

The first Gastarbeiter were recruited from European nations. Turkey however pressured the Federal republic to allow their countrymen to become guest workers. Theodor Blank, Secretary of State for Employment, was opposed to such agreements. He held the opinion that the cultural gap between Germany and Turkey would be too big and also held the opinion that Germany needed no more labourers, because there were enough unemployed people living in the poorer regions of Germany, who could fill these vacancies. The USA however, put some political pressure on Germany. It wanted to stabilize Turkey. The German Department of Foreign Affairs carried on the negotiations after this and in 1961 an agreement was reached.

After 1961, Turkish citizens (largely from rural areas) soon became the largest group of Gastarbeiter in West Germany. The perception at the time on the part of both the West German Government and the Turkish Republic representatives was that working in Germany would be only "temporary". The migrants, mostly male, were allowed to work in Germany for a period of one or two years before returning to the home country in order to make room for other migrants. Many migrants did return, after having built up savings for their return.

Until very recently Germany was not perceived as a country of immigration ("kein Einwanderungsland") by both the majority of its political leaders and the majority of its population. When political leaders realized that many of the persons from certain countries living in Germany were jobless, some calculations were done and according to that calculations paying unemployed foreigners to leave the country in the long run was cheaper than paying unemployment benefits. A "Gesetz zur Förderung der Rückkehrbereitsschaft" ("law to advance the willingness to return home") was passed. The government started paying jobless people from a number of nations, such as Turks, Morrocons and Tunisians, a so-called "Rückkehrprämie" ("Repatriation grant") or "Rückkehrhilfe" ("repatriation help") if they returned home. A person returning home received 10.500 Deutsche Mark and an additional 1.500 Deutsche Mark for his spouse and also 1.500 Deutsche Mark for each of his children if they returned to the country of his origin.

The agreement with Turkey ended in 1973 but few workers returned because there were few good jobs in Turkey. Instead they brought in wives and family members and settled in ethnic enclaves. By 2010 there were about 4 million people of Turkish descent in Germany. The generation born in Germany attended German schools, but some had a poor command of either German or Turkish, and thus had either low-skilled jobs or were unemployed. Most are Muslims and are reluctant to become German citizens. Germany used to have a Jus sanguinis, a "right of the blood". This is a policy by which nationality or citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having an ancestor who is a national or citizen of the state. It contrasts with Jus soli (Latin for "right of soil") that can be found in other States such as the USA. According to the Jus Sanguinis children born to Gastarbeiter were not automatically granted citizenship; instead they were granted the "Aufenthaltsberechtigung" ("right to reside") and might choose to apply for German citizenship later in their lives. German citizenship was granted to persons who had lived in Germany for at least fifteen years and fulfilled a number of other preconditions (they must work for their living, they should not have a criminal record and other preconditions). Nowadays the Jus Sanguinis has been modified. Children of foreigners born on German soil now will be automatically granted the German citizenship if the parent has been in Germany for at least eight years as a legal immigrant. As a rule those children have the additional citizenship of the home country of their parents. Those between 18 and 23 years of age must choose to keep either German citizenship or the other citizenship. The governments of the German States have begun campaigns to persuade immigrants to acquire German citizenship, which has become much easier now that people must have lived only 8 years in Germany rather than 15.

Those who have German citizenship have a number of advantages. For example only those holding German citizenship may vote in certain elections. Also there are some jobs that may only be performed by those holding German citizenship. As a rule these are jobs which require a high identification with the government. Only those holding German citizenship will be allowed to be a schoolteacher, a policeman or a soldier. Most jobs however do not require the person to hold German citizenship. Those who do not hold German citizenship, but the Aufenthaltsberechtigung ("right to reside") will be granted most rights every citizen has. They may attend schools, receive medical insurance, be paid children's benefits, receive welfare and housing assistance.

In many cases the Gastarbeiter integrated neatly into the German society. Dietrich Tränhardt did some scientific work on the integration of the Spanish Gastarbeiter. While many Spanish that came to Germany were illiterate peasants, their offspring were successful when it came to academic achievement (see: Academic achievement among different groups in Germany) and did well on the job market. Spanish were also very likely to marry Germans, which can be counted as a sign of assimilation. According to a study in 2000, 81.2% of all Spanish or partly Spanish children in Germany were from an inter-racial Spanish-German family.

There were some and still are some tensions in German society, because Muslim immigrants feel they have been religiously discriminated against. For example while the Christian churches are allowed to collect Church tax in Germany, Muslims cannot do so because they are not as yet organised in a corporative association (which is sometimes criticised as forcing Christian organisation-style on non-Christians). While German universities educated Jewish, catholic and Protestant clerics and religious teachers in the past none of the German universities offered education for Muslim teachers and clerics. However nowadays such university courses exist. Also Muslims were often not pleased with the fact that the Christian cross is a common item to be found in German classrooms, and used to be more so. The fact that most schools offer Catholic and Protestant religious education and ethics but no Islamic religious education has also been criticised (especially because religious education is compulsory, replaceable by ethics). Students are allowed to wear a normal headscarf in school, however recently a Muslim student has sued a Gymnasium headmaster, because she was not allowed to wear a Khimar in school.