Ethnic Minorities in the FRG

Question 1

How many refugees were there in the FRG in 1947?

Answer 1

• 10 million

Question 2

What impact did the FRG’s economic success in the 1950s and early 60s have? Give a figure.

Answer 2

• There was a need for more foreign workers, as by 1955 there was full employment

Question 3

Which group was against the arrival of foreign workers?

Answer 3

• Trade unions

Question 4

Give 2 reasons why trade unions were against the arrival of foreign workers.

Answer 4

• They were afraid an increase in the number of foreign workers would put wages down
• They also thought they would undercut existing workers by accepting worse working conditions

Question 5

What 2 actions did the government take to respond to the fears of trade unions?

Answer 5

• The government guaranteed that non-German and German workers would receive the same wages
• They also agreed to prefer German workers over non-German ones when hiring

Question 6

What other limitation did the government put on these foreign workers?

Answer 6

• The Basic Law stipulated that German citizenship was dependent on German blood rather than the number of years of residence

Question 7

How was it decided which countries the government would recruit workers from? Give 2 examples.

Answer 7

• They signed labour recruitment treaties with them
• 1955: Italy
• 1961: Turkey

Question 8

What were 2 requirements the government had of these foreign workers?

Answer 8

• They had a medical examination to check that they were physically fit for the job
• They signed a contract for a particular job (which they could not leave) for the duration of 1 year

Question 9

Due to the temporariness of their stay in the FRG, what were these workers called?

Answer 9

• Guest workers

Question 10

Why were West Germans against the permanent residence of guest workers?

Answer 10

• They thought of them as taking jobs away from ethnic Germans and being a burden on the state

Question 11

How were guest workers generally treated by emplyers?

Answer 11

• They were given accommodation by their employers in the form of dormitories outside towns, which cut them off from the community

Question 12

Did all guest workers receive good wages and accommodation? Give a detail.

Answer 12

• ‘Illegal’ foreign workers (those without contracts) did not
• They took the worst jobs for very low wages, and were provided with no accommodation

Question 13

What did most guest workers tend to be like, and what sort of jobs did they tend to have?

Answer 13

• Men between 20 and 40
• Heavy manual labour

Question 14

When was there a large increase in the number of guest workers, and why?

Answer 14

• 1961
• The Berlin Wall stopped refugees from the GDR from travelling to the FRG

Question 15

How did the arrival of guest workers affect German workers? Give 2 figures.

Answer 15

• Many of them moved into white-collar jobs
• Between 1961 and 1973, 3 million Germans moved from industrial and agricultural jobs to white-collar jobs
• Between 1961 and 1971, 870,000 Germans left jobs in mining, and they were replaced by 1.1 million guest workers

Question 16

How common was it for guest workers to have their contracts renewed?

Answer 16

• In 1964, 25% of guest workers had been in the FRG for over 3 years

Question 17

How important were guest workers in the German economy?

Answer 17

• In 1964, to commemorate the arrival of the millionth guest worker, the labour minister Theodor Blank made a speech emphasising the role of guest workers in the FRG’s success

Question 18

What were 2 other important parts of Blank’s speech?

Answer 18

• He invited them to bring their families over
• He said that DM50 million had been allocated for facilitating this, including having welfare and child benefits

Question 19

What limit was there to the help unions gave guest workers?

Answer 19

• They helped them adjust to work, but did not help them to generally integrate

Question 20

Name 2 types of organisations that helped guest workers.

Answer 20

• Church organisations such as Caritas, which was Catholic
• Their own organisations, such as ethnic associations

Question 21

What issues existed with ethnic associations?

Answer 21

• Some of them were intended to help guest workers integrate
• Others focused on preserving their culture, which attracted a lot of suspicion and hostility from West Germans

Question 22

When did guest workers come under a lot of pressure to leave their jobs and Germany?

Answer 22

• After the 1973 Oil Crisis

Question 23

What 2 things did the government do in response to the 1973 Oil Crisis in relation to guest workers?

Answer 23

• The government stopped hiring them in November 1973
• They banned permits for families of workers already in the country

Question 24

What were 2 things the state governments did in relation to guest workers to deal with the 1973 Oil Crisis?

Answer 24

• In 1975 Länder offered guest workers financial incentives for guest workers to return home
• They imposed penalties for the illegal employment of foreign workers

Question 25

How were guest workers especially disadvantaged during the 1973 Oil Crisis? Give an exmaple.

Answer 25

• They weren’t aware of their rights
• In 1974, Ford car plants offered guest workers ‘voluntary severance packages’ as they said that mass layoffs were likely
• Many workers accepted as they weren’t aware of a points system dictating who would be laid off first; those with the greater need for money (e.g. those with larger families) would be laid off after German workers who had less need for the money

Question 26

List 3 positive changes for guest workers in the 1970s.

Answer 26

• In 1975, the government gave the children of guest workers the same rights as German children, as there were now unemployed guest workers
• In 1978, Schmidt set up the Federal Commissioner for Foreigners’ Affairs to work for the rights of foreign workers and to promote their integration
• A set of rules for applying for unrestricted residence (not citizenship) were clearly laid out

Question 27

What lasting difficulty did the arrival of guest workers cause?

Answer 27

• The education of their children

Question 28

What were 2 reasons why the children of guest workers faced issues in education?

Answer 28

• Many struggled with the language and had no pre-school education as this was mostly run by Christian schools
• 70% of them failed to gain the Abitur at the end of school as there weren’t enough special provisions to help them