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Germany's Guestworkers
PHILIP L. MARTIN
t It is a myth that guestworkers represent a labor subsidy . to some employers, with'out cost to society as a whole. \'Temporary migration" soon becomes Permanent, and bytlie all costs taxpayers. of integrating new minority families are borne
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from southern Italy, Yugoslavia,· Greece, Turkey, EEC nation. West Germany continued to recruit Portugal, and Spain for one or two years' work at EEC Italians and ahsorb refugees fleeing East Ger high German wage_S.·\Vhile abroad, these migrants many. The Berlin Wall closed the door to West were expected to send home the money so desper Germany in 1961, encouraging labor-short Ccrman. ately needed to accelerate economic development manufacturers to otist a wider net for additional la Returning migrants with industrial skills were ex bor. Germany concluded labor agrcemc>nts with pected to find jobs in factories that had been cre Greece, Spain, Yugoslavia, and Turkey in 1960-61. ated by their remittances, putting labor-exporting The guestworkers corning to (lermany were USU· countries on the road to an economic takeoff. With ally unskilled males between 20 and 40, and were the gradual elimination of the poverty and unem initially recruited by German employers and bi ployment that drove poor peasants abroad, tempo lateral commissions. But word-of-mouth soon led rary labor migration vlas eventually expected to to waiting lists of Turks and Spaniards, each anx stop. ious for his chance to earn high Uerman wages. The optimism .of the 1960s has soured. The idea German employers, in discussions with plant-level that "mutual benefits" naturally arise from tempo works councils, decided how many aliens they rary labor flows has left a legacy of minority prob needed and what nationality was preferred. A re lems in labor-recruiting Germany and distorted eco quest for 1,000 Turks was sent t.o the local Employ nomic development in most of the labor-sending ment Service office, which first macle a pro forma nations. The 1980s mark a new turn in European check to see if Germans were available. If they and especially German guestworker policies, a rec were not--and this was the case 95 percent of the ognition that while guestworkers provide immediate time---the request was passed on to a bilateral re economic benefits to selected employers, workers, cruitment mission in Turkey, where an individual and consumers, they later impose hotly d~bated already screened for health, skills and a crinw-free integration costs on the whole society. This lesson background would be awarded a German residence of immediate selective economic benefits but de permit and a one-year work contract with a specif ferred general socioeconomic costs has important ic employer. The German Labor Office arranged implications for the 20-odd bills pending in Con and paid for transportation to Germany, where em gress to initiate a large-scale guest worker program ployers typically provided barracks-style housing. in the United States. In the late 1960s, 5,000 guestworkers were arriving daily in Germany, part of the most massive "lrn Early optimism man trade" in Europe's peacetime history. One day ,. after arrival, the guestworker was at work on the ' West Germany began economic reconstruction in assembly line or at the construction site. 1949 with massive unemployment. Even-after cur The notion that temporary !abor migration pro rency reform and the "social market economy" vides benefits to both sending and receiving coun· put Germany on the path of sustained economic tries was so powerful that the number of ostensibly growth, unemployment persisted because of the in temporary guest workers swelled beyond anyone's flux of East German refugees. Isolated labor short original expectations. In 1960, Germany had fewer ages first appeared in 1955, when German farmers than 300,000 guestworkers, mostly Italian. By requested permission to hire Italian harvest labor. 1972, the 2.5 million guestworkers in Germany, Germany signed a labor recruitment agreement mainly Turks and Yugoslavs, wete 12 percent of the with Italy late in the same year. But it soon be work force. Foreign workers were more common came apparent that the family farms of Germany than Germans in some construction crews and on were not going to require much foreign labor: the assembly lines. The alien workers sweeping streets real need for labor was in the German factories · and collecting garbage became a visible reminder of producing cars, machine tools, steel, and consumer the German economy's increasing dependenc<;. on durables for booming export and domestic markets. foreign workers. l The 1957 Treaty of Rome established the Euro Most of Germany's first guestworkers shuttled pean Economic Community (EEC) and guaranteed in and out of Germany as,expected. The widely :I citizens of member states the right to work in any publicized Rotationsprinzip worked when reces-
'July-August 1981 /Challenge •
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the late 1960s and early 1970s. effectively gave most guestworkers the sa1~1e rights as EEC nation als: once in Germany, the "guests" could not be forced out. Instead of being forced to return, guestworkers obtained rights to have their dependents join them in Germany after one year's employment if they had proof of suitable housing. The predictable re sult was a stream of dependents eligible for Ger man children's allowances (now $135 monthly for three children) and requiring education in Ger many. Migrants mov(;d to particular sections (ghettos) of the largest German cities, giving Frank furt, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Munich separate little sion struck late in 1966. One year later, almost ltalys and Turkish, Spanish, Yugoslav, and Greek 500,000 gucstworkers were gone, their jobs pre enclaves. The subway running through the Kreuz sumably available for unemployed Germans. berg district of Berlin-which now has the third But the continued movement of foreign workers largest Turkish population of any city in the world in and out of Germany obscured the fact tfiat more -has been ·dubbed the "Orient Express." As for and_ more temporary "guest~" had been German eigners moved in, Germans moved out, making the residents for four or five years. Migrants were ex ethnic communities islands in the German cities. pensive to German employers, requiring the pay Educating and housing migrant dependents fi ment of recruitment fees, translation, housing, and nally made the public at large aware of Max Frisch's training costs, and the same wages ana fringe bene aphorism, "We asked for workers and got men." s paid to native workers ..German employers did The presence of so many workers and dependents t want to send a trained migrant home just be for so long made the original employer promise of cause a one- or two-year work contract expired and a "short-term" need for alien labor seem ever more then repeat the recruitnwn!. training, and housing hollow. Popular discontent with, burgeoning for process with an unknown alien. The migrants them eign populations and narrowly defeated referenda selves were not anxious to return Lo the low wages to reduce the foreign workforce sharply in neigh and unemployment they had left or~specially boring Switzerland made aliens a public issue. Ger for Greeks and Spaniards during dictatorship eras many is now debating the trade-offs between labor -the lack of political freedom in their native needs for economic growth and the rise of ethnic countries. minorities and tensions in relatively homogeneous Germany. Permanence Halt to recruitment The German guestworker system originally envi sioned the shuttling of temporary alien workers Tension rose when employer needs for alien labor to through "permanent" manufacturing jobs, jobs re sustain noninflationary economic growth clashed quiring someone else to fill them after the short with popular fears that ostensibly short-term guest term migrant had departed. The self-interest of em workers were becoming backdoor permanent im ploye11. and migrants, however, inevitably encour migrants. In February 1973, the government an aged a permanent rather than a temporary employ nounced that the recruitment fee would be in ment relationship. creased from a nominal 350 DM to 1,000 DM per The unions, churches, and migrant welfare or worker in September to discourage "overreliance" ganizations pressed the German government "to on aliens. Employers responded by importing improve the status of migrants.'' A series of ad 500,000 migrants in the spring and summer of ministrative rulings and government decisions in 1973, more than ever before. The October 1973
36 Challenge/July-August 1981 • ·,
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Middle East War and subsequent oil embargo. and special education for migrant children was al prompted widespread fears of an economic reces located to cities with high con.centrations of for sion. The German/ government stopped migrant eigners. worker recruitment on November 22, 1973, an ac tion that was justified by the feared recession~ Patterns since 1-973 Many contemporary observers, however, thought the government had at last found a convenient ex Seven years have elapsed since Germany ended its cuse to halt immigration and reassess policies with labor-·importation experiment. The number of for out offending employers. eign workers has been cut 20 percent to 2 million, The 1973 halt to recruitment was accompanied but the total foreign population is now at an all by a series of measures to mute other critics. No time high of 4.5 million. During the 1960s, almost guestworker would be' forced to leave Germany all migrcmts in Germany were working, contribu against his or her will, although migrants would be ting to expensive social welfare programs but re "encouraged" to -return to jobs created in German ceiving few benefits. Today, however, nonworking _ subsidized factories in their homelands. Migrants could continue fetching their dependents, but wives and teenagers wanting to work would have to wait several years before they could get work per mits. Money to provide housing, social services,
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dependents outnumber migrant workers in Ger · profit was insufficient lab9r. Unemployment r
38 Challenge/July-August 1981 • ·,
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But the myth that foreigners were only temporary "grey wolves" extort money from Turkish workers workers, not permanent immigrants, effectively and businesses to finance political agitation for an squelched the notion of taxing employers or their Islamic Turkish state. These right-wing extremists goods to pay later integration and infrastructure are held responsible for attacks on more moderate costs. and leftist Turks in "termany, but the closed Turk· The most dangerous myth surrounding guest ish communities in Germany are just as impene workers programs is that they are a labor subsidy trable .as U.S. Chinatowns were a hundred years to selected employers, without cost to society. ago. German authorities fear Turkish unrest, but The notion that temporary individuals can be ro find it difficult to anticipate and control it. Adolf tated through permanent jobs is ultimately rejected Schmidt, head of the mining and energy workers' in industrial democracies ( with the exception of union, complains that "re-Islamization" leads to South Africa) but the 'guestworker concept pre isolation,· making Turkish workers reluctant to vents the enactment of taxes to pay the _integra quaff a beer with German workmates. tion costs that · inevitably accompany migrant Integration proceeds under so many constraints workers. and uncertainties that current measures cannot be said to represent a consistent policy. The main Can there be integration? focus is on the children of foreign workers·-the second generation. These children, many of whom Germany remains unsure whether it wants resident have only visited their country of citizenship, are foreigners to become immigrants, but it is sure it caught between tradition-bound parents still cling wants to "integrate" them into German society i~ to the hope of returning and Geiman author while they are present. Helmut Schmidt made the ities anxious to avoid an uneducated proletariat. integration of foreigners the top domestic pri-ority Germany's migrants and its institutions now stand when he addressed the first meeting of Social apart. The official integration policy is to change Democratic Party (SPD) repre-sentatives after his the migrants so they can effectively utilize existing October 1980 reelection. The liberal SPD argues education and training institutions. Germany is that integration is the reward for the migrants' strongly resisting the notion that its institutions past economic contributions but, Mr. Schmidt was may have to change to absorb the foreigners, even quick to add, "four million is enough." Integration though the first such changes are already apparent. is not a simple matter, he continued: "It's not easy In Cologne, the Ruhr cities, and parts of Berlin, for Germans who live in an apartment house and school authorities are experimenting with cross who don't like the smell of garlic to have to put up town busing to avoid the school segregation that with it and even to have a lamb slaughtered in the results from housing patterns. Multilingual teaching hallway." The dilemma is how to integrate foreign is the official policy only in Bavaria, but even the ers when the final goal-citizenship and full par after-hours classes in native languages arc produc ticipation-cannot be uttered yet. ing demands to import teachers, since "only fellow The integration dilemma is compounded by foreigners can truly maintain the child's original more than German reluctance to convert immi culture." Religious teachers are already imported grant workers into citizens. The migrants them ( and paid by Germany), prompting protests that seJves want the permanent right to work in Ger Turkish mullahs are being paid by Gernum author many far more than the right to vote in German ities to teach hatred for secular-Germans. Parents elections. The migrants' home countries are not (and the child's grades) decide whether ten-year anxious to lose citizens (and possibly remittances); olds will follow a college preparatory track, pursue hence they protest any steps to expedite now cum vocational training, or simply obtain a general edu bersome naturalization procedures. ·cation. Some reforms urge the creation of Gesamt The 1.4 million Turks are a special problem. schulen( unified schools) modeled on American mid Their Islamic religion and relativ~ poverty alienate dle and high sc.hools, to postpone decisions long them from German society. Political divisions at enough ·for the migrant child to make up his own home have been carried'· to Germany. Rightist mind. '
July-August 1981/Challenge 39 •
Wiil Germany be able to integrate her 4.5 mil prenticeship slot. The problem is that a dangerous lion foreigners? \Viii German integration strains re gap is developing between' the.,se youths' expecta semble those of ~he American civil rights move tions and the realities of the German labor market. ment? lntegration may require several generatioµs. Cur Problems of sending countries rent integration programs represent efforts to head off future problems, 11ot a response to migrant de- Germany's migrant workers are often reluctant to . mands. Most migrants remain divided, having return home because economic conditions have brought their religious, social, and political differ worsened since massive labor emigration began. ences with them and continuing to follow closely Most of the Southern European countries sending activities of their factions at home. labor north were "showered with glittering coins" The most important difference between Ger and a host of econonu~ problems that increased many's migrants and America's minorities is eco their dependence on rich neighbors. The result is a nomic. Germany's guestworkers earn "above aver 180-degree turn in attitudes toward emigration in age" incomes for unskilled and semi-skilled workers many sending countries. Instead of welcoming the because they ~!agcrly accept night, weekend, and chance to export unemployment, some of these overtime shifts. Despite a worrisome upward trend _ countries are now demanding compensation for the in migrant unemployment, the economic disadvan "brawn drain." tage of American minorities is not present 111 Ger Exporting labor provides jobs and incomes for many; many who may be unemployed at home. But the dangers of exporting labor are manifold. The most Current issues immediate problem is to match German labor needs with a poor country's unemployed workers. Ger 'l;'ostwar Germany adopted a two-lrack immigration mans want the best and brightest workers, not r~licy. Few permanent immigrants were antici poor peasants requiring months of training and pa~d but a liberal refugee provision of the Basic adaptation. Law willingly accepted millions of ethnic Germans Since German wages are so high, it is not hard to fleeing Eastern Europe. Afler 1960, immigration attract a poor country's shilled workers. But poor policy was determined by the short-term labor countries need to export unskilled labor, not the needs of employers. The current dilemma is decid skilled labor needed for their own development. ing how to turn "backdoor" !abor importation into Incentives work in the opposite direction, as shown a humanitarian immigration policy for the fulurc. by the Turkish experience. One estimate now puts Illegal immigration is a persisting worry despite 85 percent of all skilled Turkish workers in Ger border controls, identity cards, police registration, many.Turkish productivity falls as women and chil and tough sanctions on employers hiring illegal dren are drafted to replace men, encouraging many aliens ( up to three and a half years in jail plus planners to throw up their hands and demand mod $30,000 fines). Most estimates place the number of ern, imported, and expensive German machinery in illegal aliens at 200,000 to 300,000-10 to 15 per new factories. The result is that Turkey, with 50 cent of the iegal alien workforce. Germany's illegal percent unemployment and underemployme~l has aliens are concentrated in agriculture, restaurants some. plants that are more modern than those em and hotels, and construction firms. German unions ploying Turks in Ge;many. (and s~me employers) are demanding stepped-up Labor shortages are most immediately felt in enforcement of existing laws. agriculture, since men typically leave their famili~s German unemployment rates have been low in rural villages as they go first to Turkish cities since the late 1950s, and youth unemployment is and then abroad. In theory, their departure and the traditionally less than average. Economic changes chance to. live on savings from abroad should en and the presence of so many aliens promise to able children to stay in school and permit small in change this historic relationship. So far, youth un efficient plots to be consolidated for a more pro employment primarily afflicts aliens who did not ductive agriculture. But jobs abroad are uncertain, finish secondary school and failed to find an ap- so families keep their plots and work them, half-
40 Challenge/July-August 19~1 •.. •
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heartedly, as insurance against lay9ff or injury to pose some sort of European-style guestworker pro the breadwinner abroad. Instead of a dynamic and gram for the United States. The justifications of· efficient agriculture, tJiere is often less intensive fered for these billsare threefold. This country's farming of land, iric:;easing food imports and de 2,000 mile border with Mexico cannot be effective· pendence on the rich countries dominating interna ly controlled without a repugnant Berlin-style wall. tional grain exports. Even if control were possible, the United States has Remittances from workers abroad are important, tolerated illegal Mexican entries for so long that it often covering a poor country's oil importing bill. cannot ·abruptly close the Mexican "safety valve," But so much money injected into a poor country especially when the scale of Mexican oil and gas re with bare ~helves encourages a flood of consumer serves is becoming clear. The United States now imports. Instead of investing remittance monies in ha!'i an "uncontrolled" alien labor program, so why shaky banks or even mtne shaky stock markets, not legalize reality and manage labor migration? guestworkers seek more immediate gratification. Some guestworke~ proponents argue that this
The typical retunJed migrant brings back- a car country needs alien labor "to do the jobs Ameri 0 filled with consumer durables, hoping to become a cans won't do" (preserving good supervisory jobs taxi driver. Few save patiently and invest in new in the process), to prevent wage inflation, and to job-creating factories. reduce looming social security deficits. These guest Returning migrants seem to reject the manual worker advocates believe that young and mobile work they did before departure and while abroad. Mexicans can fill labor market gaps, contribute The slogan "work in Germany but live in Turkey" payroll taxes to strained social welfare programs, encourages rapid expansion of the urban service and be returned before they pose any, integration sector. Land and housing prices escalate, accentua threat. ting inflation as too much money chases too few The counterarguments are moral, economic,_and goods. Families unlucky enough not to have at feast practical. Opponents argue that a class of helots is {~s~=: one guestworker are _hurt by_ the higher prices morally offensive .in a democracy even if the indi brought on by the money from a.broad. vidual aliens and their U.S. employers b!'nefit. Guestworker families may be richer but may not Economists note that alien labor is a subsidy to remain families in still traditional societies. So many employers, a hidden subsidy that preserves jobs in >':'\~~,- men abroad leads to villages of women and chil the kinds of industries the United States doesn't dren. Traditional patriarchial family structures want. Economists also question the need for alien break down and are not replaced. Many men live labor in an era of high unemployment and very more or less permanently abroad with one wife but high youth unemployment .. If tractable aliens are continue returning to an otherwise abandoned wife available, will employers really try to hire often re once a year. Some observers fear that childrep raised . calcitrant native youth? Finally, opponents note in such a vacuum will be a source of urban unrest, that this country has no national identity card to since their expectations are shaped by foreign jobs distinguish legal and illegal aliens easily, nor sanc arid wages but they have no chance to emigrate. tions on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, Remittances could be the spur to achieve an eco making "control" a hollow promise. nomic takeoff. But there is nothing automatic in Europe's 20-year experience with guestworkers the flow of savings to guarantee that the extra one yields three lessons for the American debate. First, o'.r -two billion dollars will accelerate development. labor flows are easier to start than to stop. Once The lesson in most countries is that remittances are they are set in motion it is very d!fficult to reverse a short-run salve, not the beginnings of a long-run the incentives_ that tie aliens to employers. The cure. Labor exporters must be very careful or the longer aliens stay abroad, the more likely they are short-run help may mask distortions that can re t0 obtain rights to bring their families. Dependents tard development. accompanying alien workers require housing and a variety of public and private services, giving rise to Lessons for the United States the integration-versus-return conundrum. The pri vate services are sometimes ,provided by fellow At least 20 different bills pending in Congress pro- aliens, creating more jobs in ethnic restaurants and " . .,, -
July-A tigu.~t 1981 /Challenge. 41
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entertainment establishments and making the mi sible for perhaps twice as many illegal entrants as gration process self-feeding. Information about are admitted legally each year under a humanitar jobs and the protection of an ethnic community ian law. The United States'" de jure humanitarian can give rise to· illegal immigration after labor re policy is being swamped by its de facto economic cruitment is stopped. In short, the alien l~bor tap is immigration. far easier to open than to close, especially in de In the debate over how to reform American im lnocrncies concerned w_ith human rights. migration law one fact stands clear. The United 'l'he second lesson from Europe is that the alien States accepts more immigrants than any other cur.e is short-lived. Alien labor is imported to curb country, t~ice as many as the rest of the world labor shortages. There is nothing inherent in the combined. Anti-immigrant feeling, the fortress guestworker process that" naturally reduces future mentality, is -011 the rise in b_oth this country and needs for alien ·labor. Instead, employers become Europe. Employers want access to alien labor de "addicted" to docile aliens, which discourages the spite the general anti:imiuigrant mood, and prom search for labor-saving innovations and ways to im ise that temporary guestworkers mean all benefits prove wages and working conditions. Aliens raised and no costs. Guestworkers do provide immediate in a poor country may eagerly accept an industrial benefits to selected employers and consumers. The society's "dirty work," but their children reared problem is that in a democracy, costs inevitably fol abroad may reject their parents' jobs. Thus, labor low and are borne by the whole society, not just importers may be put on a treadmill, forever con the beneficiaries of guestworkers. The fundamental de!nned to import more and more foreigners to do problem is this distributional one: benefits accrue society's dirty work. to one group at one time but costs are deferred to The third lesson from Europe involves the ef everyone at a later date. fects of emigration on poor countries t~at export Immigrants, unlike guestworkers, receive educa ·· Jabor. In theory, the return of remittances and now tion and training and the other benefits available t:.:1ined migrants should ~pur economic develop- to all U.S. citizens. Most immigrants' earnings 1ilfi,nt, eventually equalizing economic conditions catch up to those of similarly educated natives af bet*een labor-sending and receiving areas. But the ter ten to twenty years. The fact that immigrants' European experience shows that labor emigration integration costs are apparent from the outset pro is as likely to distort as to accelerate economic de vides a built-in control .mechanism that prevents velopment. The "best and brightest" tend to leave one social group ( employers or advocates for one and stay abroad, since they are the first to adapt to ethnic or religious group) from expanding immi industrial life and its rewards. Remittances are grant numbers too rapidly. both uncertain and uncontrolled, likely to be re Immigration, especially illegal entry, is one of duced just when emigration countries need them the unresolved problems for the 1980s. The United most and as likely to end up being spent for im States is the world's immigration land. But it cannot ported cars and consumer durables as invested in continue its de facto acceptance of illegal immi job-creating factories. Instead of making poor grants and escape future integration costs and civil countries economically independent, labor emigra rights dilemmas. Instead of choosing a short-term tion often increases the dependence of poor coun• guestworker solution to the illegal immigr1ition di tries on their rich neigh bors. lemma, the United States could take the lead in ·It is sometimes said that aliens bring out the finding ways to help potential migrants more ef worst instincts in people. The dilemma facing all fectively at home. If the industrial world does not industrial democracies is how to choose those few act soon, it may be faced with the human wave envi immigrants permitted to enter the doors of wealth. sioned by former Algerian President Boumedienne, For most of its history, the United States per who said that "no quantity of atomic bombs could mitted employers (labor needs) to determine the stem t~e tide of billions ... who will some day leave magnitude of immigration. Since 1952, American the poor southern part of the world to erupt into immigration law has given-priority to humanitarian the relatively accessible spaces of the rich northern reasons for entry. But the reality of illegal immigra hemisphere looking for survival." The clock is tick tion means that employer labor needs are respon~ ing away .
. 4 2. ClialkngelJu.ly-August 1981