The Turkish-German Guest Worker Treaty

[pieter]

The Turkish-German Guest Worker Treaty


Turkish guest workers transformed German society

The West German economy boomed after the Second World War and workers were in short supply. Then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer decided to invite"guest workers"and signed a recruitment treaty with Turkey. Many of those workers became permanent residents; they and their descendants are now an integral part of German society. We examine the case of one man and his story which reflects the development and legacy of the treaty over the decades.



Gastarbeiter ("guest worker" in English, Gastarbeider in Dutch, pracownik gościnny in Polis and ) refers to foreign or migrant workers, particularly those who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker program (Gastarbeiterprogramm). Other countries had similar programs: in the Netherlands and Belgium it was called the gastarbeider program; in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland it was called arbetskraftsinvandring (workforce-immigration); and in East Germany such workers were called Vertragsarbeiter. The term was used during the Nazi era as was Fremdarbeiter (German for "foreign worker"). However, the latter term had negative connotations. The term was no longer used after World War II.



They left the poverty of Anatolia for Germany's economic miracle. The first Turkish guest workers were recruited half a century ago. Quite a few have now returned to Turkey.
In 1961, the Agreement on the Recruitment of Turkish Workers offered many Turks the opportunity to escape the poverty of their homeland. Today, Turkey is a self-confident nation with a booming economy. More Turks now leave Germany than come here. With their savings and German pensions, those who go home after decades working in Germany usually enjoy a good standard of living. Some talked to us about their time here.



Ibrahim Esen is one of the 710,000 'gasterbeiter' or guestworker Turks who were recruited for manpower in Germany between 1961 and 1973. He arrived some time in between, in his early twenties, a full-time metalworker, speaking next to no German.

He remembers the culture shock: "Where would I do my shopping, forced to live on my own? I wondered what to eat, didn't even know how to cook. I had such trouble with the language -- such a different culture."

[karl]

Pieter

It is good of you to enter this presentation of the Turkish Gastarbeiter of so long ago. Some are still here and rightly so, they for the most part, not only helped with their energy, but were very good workers. They for the most part were not satisfied to sit around eating out of the welfare trough, but working at jobs many German workers refused to do.

Some years past whilst assigned to duties in the home land, I owned a small house in Bremen and needed a house keeper to attend to cleaning twice weekly. Most of this time, my self was away so as with a cleaning lady to be known to enter the house, it was a good way of property protection and safety in the case of a broken water pipe or what ever.

Once she was hired by my self, loe and behold, her Father and Mother arrived to inspect the house the following day accompanied by the newly hired cleaning lady. She spoke very good German whilst though, her parents were not so good, so once we all were together on the duties of their daughter. The reason of this visit which was a safety check by concerned parents to check me out, check out the risk that possibly would effect their daughter in the manner of her work.

The end result was we become very good friends and my self learnt how to respect these people with their close family ties. After that, I had a new respect to Turkish people.

Karl

[kaima]

Yes,

Thanks for bringing up the story and providing the source material!

I was in Germany to experience the mixture of peoples 'the next generation', after the first Turks were well established and there was discussion among the Germans about their new neighbors after a decade or two - assimilation, non-assimilation, cultural differences, etc. Will they be headed home after so long, or will they stay? How will it go further?

There were good jokes about the Turks - "Want to see Turkish workmanship and quality? Look at my Mercedes!"

Well, we have arrived at that Future, and now there are Turkish-Germans as a firm, well established part of the country. So it seems.

There is also the story of the Yugoslavs as guest workers, which deserves its own thread and should not intrude upon this one.

Kai

[pieter]

Turks in the Netherlands


Turks in the Netherlands (occasionally and colloquially Dutch Turks or Turkish-Dutch; Dutch: Turkse Nederlander; Turkish: Hollanda Türkleri) are the ethnic Turks living in the Netherlands. They make up 2.5% of the population.

History



During the 1950s, successive Dutch governments strongly stimulated emigration from the Netherlands, while at the same time the economy grew rapidly. The Netherlands began to face a labour shortage by the mid-1950s already, which became more serious during the early 1960s, as the country experienced even higher economic growth rates, comparable to the rest of Europe. At the same time, Turkey had a problem of unemployment, low GNP levels and a high population growth. So the import of labour solved problems on both ends. The first Turkish immigrants arrived in the Netherlands in the beginning of the 1960s at a time when the Dutch economy was wrestling with a shortage of workers. On 19 August 1964, the Dutch government entered into a 'recruitment agreement' with Turkey. Thereafter, the number of Turkish workers in the Netherlands increased rapidly.


The Dutch and Turkish flag on the home of Dutch Turks during a soccer match Netherlands-Turkey

There were two distinct periods of recruitment. During the first period, which lasted until 1966, a large number of Turks came to the Netherlands through unofficial channels, either being recruited by employers or immigrating spontaneously. A small economic recession began in 1966. Some of the labour migrants were forced to return to Turkey. In 1968, the economy picked up again and a new recruitment period, which was to last until 1974, commenced. In May 1968, new European Economic Community rules forced the Netherlands to instate a travel visa system to regulate labour immigration and from then on, the state recruited foreign workers. The peak of Turkish labour migration occurred during these years. The Turks eventually surpassed other migrant nationalities in numbers and came to represent the Dutch image of guest workers. Due to the 1973 oil crisis, the Den Uyl cabinet ended labour immigration in 1974. Because from then on re-entry into the Netherlands was impossible, Turkish remigration strongly decreased. A system of family reunification had been arranged in the 1960s and gradually Turkish workers after 1974 brought over their wife and children. The latter predominantly married partners from Turkey. In the early twenty-first century the Second Balkenende cabinet imposed much stricter conditions on unification, to a large extent ending Turkish "marriage immigration". This coincided with a drop in birth rates, leading to a gradual levelling off in the growth of people of Turkish descent. Since 2003, there have often been years with an emigration surplus.

Demographics


Turkish demonstration against the military coup in Rotterdam, july 2016

Turkish immigrants first began to settle in big cities in the Netherlands such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht as well as the regions of Twente and Limburg, where there was a growing demand for industrial labour. However, not only the capital cities but also medium-sized cities, and even small villages attracted the Turks.

The Turkish population is mostly concentrated in large cities in the west of the country; some 36% of Turks live in the Randstad region. The second most common settlements are in the south, in the Limburg region, in Eindhoven and Tilburg, and in the east: in Deventer, as well as in Enschede and Almelo in the Twente region.


Dutch Turks on a bridge in Rotterdam during a demonstration against the military coup'd etat in july 2016

According to Statistics Netherlands, as of 2009, the total population of the Netherlands is 16,485,787. The Turkish population is 378,330, thus 2.29% of the total population. This consisted of some 196,000 first-generation Turks and 183,000 second-generation Turks whose parents originated from Turkey. The number of third-generation Turks is not recorded in Statistics Netherlands. The total number of third generation descendants of all "non-western" immigrants was estimated at about 120,000 in 2016.


Turkish and Dutch flags in a street in a working class neighbourhood

Source: Wikipedia


Dutch provinces as European countries by population

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Turkish procession in Arnhem with old Ottoman symbolism