FRG: Ethnic Minorities Flashcards
How many refugees were there by April 1, 1947?
About 10 million refugees and ‘expelles’ (German from parts of Europe that were no longer longer part of Germany)
Why did unions initially dislike the idea of the governments need for more workers from abroad in the 1950s
Economic boom in 1950s created a need for more workers.
Unions dislike idea as there was already large number of foreign workers in country and feared foreign workers could force wages down and undercut existing workers .
How did the government solve the unions distaste to new foreign workers?
Guaranteed non-German workers, the same wages (therefore no fear of undercutting existing Germans).
Foreign labour program
Favoured men of 20 to 40 years of age and they were usually given heavy manual labour.
They took jobs Germans were happy to leave for work -> between 1961 and 1973 around 3 million Germans switched from industrial work to white colour jobs.
How are German peoples jobs changing in the 1960s. How did this affect foreign workers?
Between 1961-71, 900,000 Germans left jobs in mining and around 1.1 million guestworkers took their place.
Number of foreign workers kept rising and increasing number of ‘ illegal’ foreign workers arrived. They took the worst jobs for very low wages and no accommodation was provided.
What was the attitude towards foreign workers?
They were known as guest workers. The name underlines the German attitudes - they were so they they had to be temporary.
Had guarantees in their contracts, but they didn’t have rights of German citizens
How did unions and the church support guest workers
Unions:
- Help them adjust to work, but we’re less helpful about long-term assimilation, saying they had no desire to turn workers into Germans
Church organisations:
- Catholic organisation eg. The Caritas Helped support to the workers.
How did the 1966 recession affect attitudes towards guestworkers?
Recession wasn’t long produced significant amount of hostility, especially those who couldn’t speak German.
Landlords refuse to take guest workers as tenants, thus guestworkers lived among other guestworkers in the poorest areas
Recession was over and workers were in demand again, but hostility remain from right wing groups
What was government opinion of guestworkers?
Government supported guest workers a lot.
In 1964, labour minister, Theodor Blank made speech to mark the 1 million guest work arriving.
Said guestworkers have been foundation of Germany, success, and I guess workers would continue to be important as the German labour pool was likely to continue shrinking.
Why were guestworkers under pressure again to leave during the 1970s
Due to the oil crisis and sudden rise and unemployment
November 1973
Government put a stop on hiring and ban permits for families of workers in the country
What happened in 1975
Government gave guest workers children, the same benefits as other children because they were now unemployed guestworkers
What was the role of the first federal commissioner for foreigner affairs?
Appointed in 1978, he had to work for the rights of foreign workers and promote their integration.
Same time clear settle rules for applying for unrestricted residence, but not citizenship, was introduced.
How did the government try to fix the educational problems of guestworker children?
Government policy was to provide ‘democratic education’ = equal opportunity
Try to persuade Lander to provide mixed culture, learning groups with classes of Germans and guestworkers , giving books in mother, tongue and books in German
What was the number of foreign children in schools in 1976 to 1983. What was their main demographic?
1976: 165,000
1983: 200,000
60% were Muslim
