Migration To Germany.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

1-MIGRATION TO GERMANY

1.1 SITUATION IN GERMANY

After 1945, millions of people started to migrate from underdeveloped countries, to Western Europe, in order to be employed, in other words to have better standards of living. After the fifties, the active population in Western Europe was unable to meet the requirements for the rapidly growing economy. Consequently, labor shortage appeared and immigration became a necessity for the economic development of Western European countries. Nearly all of them, therefore turned to immigration process to supply the labor shortage, which was caused by the rapid industrial growth.

After the World War II, economists thought that Europe would be unable to provide employment for its own citizens. For instance, Western Germany experienced an inflow of eight millions of refugees from the former eastern provinces. At that time, it was estimated that Germany could only support 44 million people, but its population was 66 millions in 1946. Accordingly, efforts were made to halt further immigration.

1.2 BEGINNING OF THE LABOR SHORTAGE AND SOLUTION

After the war, Western Germany had a considerable unemployment rate due to the war and economic disorganization. However, after the economic recovery in 1948, Germany reconstruction was so rapid that unemployed and refugees found jobs. During the fifties, even three millions of refugees from the German Democratic Republic were given jobs in Western Germany. During the fifties, Germany became the most rapidly growing country in the world with the average of eight percent per year, as productivity of other countries was used for armament because of the Korean War, especially United States’. Finally, by the late fifties, serious labor shortage was being felt as we see on the table 1, which shows the growth in Germany. Vacancies, which were 116,000 in 1950 rose to 200,000 and the unemployed persons declined from 1.580.000 to 928.000 in 1955.

Table 1: Unemployment rate and vacancies

Therefore, in order to make up the excess demand for the labor market, the German Government, in 1955, made its first agreement, with Italy, for the recruitment of workers.

The Italian migrant workers, it was thought, would be employed in the field of agriculture and construction. However, by 1959, only one worker from Italy worked in the field of agriculture out of ten. Most of them were employed in industry or construction. The number of all foreign workers rose from 95.000 in 1956, to 507.000 in June 1961. These immigrants were mostly from Italy, Austria and the Netherlands. In 1961 Italians were the largest foreign population in Germany with 43.6 percent of the total foreign population.

By 1960, the German unemployment rate was reduced to less than one percent and inflation was low; however, there was a slower growth rate in the sixties, compared to the fifties, caused by the lack of labor supply. The vacancies were 465.000, more then double compared to those of 1955 and the unemployment rate was reduced from 3.9 percent in 1955 to one percent in 1960. Furthermore, changing age structure of the population, longer hours spent on education and training, earlier retirement age declined the rate of active population. Therefore, recruitment agreements were made with Spain and Greece in 1960. Also, the appearance of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 stopped immigration from East Germany, which was an important source providing qualified workers for the Federal Republic of Germany. In order to make up for the labor supply from East Germany, additional recruitment agreements were signed with Turkey in 1961, Portugal in 1964 and Yugoslavia in 1968, although immigrants from these countries were less qualified than those from the East Germany and had social problems with integration. The issue of integration will be mentioned later in the second part of this paper.

1.3 THE PROCESS OF IMMIGRATION, THE DECISION TO STOP RECRUITMENT, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

The Bundesanstalt fur Arbeit (The Federal Labor Office) was in charge of the process of recruitment. This office was going to set up agencies in the countries of agreements and deal with specific request for workers from German employers, who give details about the job and the conditions offered. On the other hand, responsible sections of the sender countries had the responsibility of finding appropriate candidates. The German agencies determined that the workers were suitable for the job under discussion and checked the criminal records of the workers. Workers were also supposed to undergo thorough a medical examination by German doctors. After the contract was signed, initially for one year, the agency staff gave information about the details of the job and life in Germany. Finally, workers were sent to Germany, where they were given an identity card and transported as a group. This process was more or less the same for each country of agreement

However after, 1973, the process of recruitment was changed by the German government, because the number of vacancies started to diminish and the of the unemployment rate to increase after 1970, as shown on the table 2. (The result of this decision will be mentioned in the next section) However, the decision to stop the recruitment did not affect immigration until 1975. In 1974 the population of immigrants was the highest of its history, despite the stop of recruitment and the hardening of the work permit legislation in June 6, 1973.

Table 2: Unemployment Rate and Vacancies Between 1970-74

According to Nermin Abadan Unat new recruitment policy was as below:

The recruitment procedure for each new foreign worker will depend upon the ability of adequate and decent housing facilities, to be provided by the employer
The permission for new comers to settle in already heavily concentrated regions depends on the absortive capacity of the existing social infrastructure
Employers will have pay a considerably higher sum for recruitment services, this said sum being meant to be used for vocational and language education
Any obligatory or coercive measures tending ...

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Table 2: Unemployment Rate and Vacancies Between 1970-74

According to Nermin Abadan Unat new recruitment policy was as below:

The recruitment procedure for each new foreign worker will depend upon the ability of adequate and decent housing facilities, to be provided by the employer
The permission for new comers to settle in already heavily concentrated regions depends on the absortive capacity of the existing social infrastructure
Employers will have pay a considerably higher sum for recruitment services, this said sum being meant to be used for vocational and language education
Any obligatory or coercive measures tending to terminate abruptly prevailing employment arrangements of foreign labor, are to be rejected on social and humanistic ground

It is thought that illegal immigration took place, especially after the new regulation of recruitment policy. Italians had not any restrictions, as their country was a member of the E.C.C. However, illegal entries were made by the immigrants of other countries: In 1961, 21.3 percent of Greek, 17.3 percent of Spaniard, 19.2 percent of Turkish, 14 percent of Portuguese immigrants came to Germany without using the recruiting system. There was also a number of illegal immigrants who never obtained labor or residence permit which is estimated to be fifteen percent of the total foreigners.

1.3- DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS BY NATIONALITY

In 1966, Italians were still the largest group in the foreign population with 30.4 percent, but new recruitment agreements had decreased their share in the labor supply as shown in table 3. After 1969, Yugoslavs and Turks started to dominate the immigration.

Although Germany’s invitation was only for the Europeans, there was a small number of non-European immigrants in 1969, which was 49.000. The majority of these immigrants were from Tunisia and Morocco. Today, Germany’s foreign workers came from six countries of agreement, including Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Table 3: Percentage of the Foreigners in the Labor Market Between 1961-69

Source: Auslaendische Arbeitnehmer1962, 1969

Most of the remaining workers, which is approximately one fifth of the total foreign population, came from other countries, mostly from Austria and Netherlands.

In 1966 there were 1.3 million foreign workers, but this number decreased to 904.000, because of the recession during 1966-67. Then, rapid economic recovery increased the number of foreign workers to two million by 1970. In 1970, the number of foreign population was 3.5 times greater than that of 1961 and in 1973, the year that the recruitment was stopped by the German government, the numbers of immigrants were almost four millions, which constituted 6.4 percent of the total population.

Table 4: Percentage of the Immigrants in Germany in 1961 and 1970

Source: Ausgewaehlte Strukturdaten fur Auslaender 1979

Table 5: Foreign Population Between 1961 and 1974

Source: Auslaender1979, Police Statistics

Finally, the foreign population decreased between 1974 and 1976, but never became as low as it was in 1973, but the foreign labor force was brought down from 9.8 (2,5 million) percent in 1973 to 7.9 (2 million) percent in 1980.

Between 1974 and 1978, nearly 550.000 people left Germany. Most of the immigrants of all nationalities went back to their countries except Turks. Therefore, Turks became the largest foreign population in Germany, composing thirty percent of the foreign population followed by Yugoslavs and Italians with fifteen and 14.4 percent respectively in 1979. The reason of Turks for not returning to their country was the worse condition in Turkey, also these workers were the cheapest ones, so they took the jobs of other immigrants, who had worked with higher salaries.

Table 6: The Migratory Flows Between 1974 and 1978

Source: Ausgewaehlte Strukturdaten fur Auslaender 1978

Table 7: The Distribution of Foreign Population In Percentage Between 1974-79

Source: Ausgewaehlte Strukturdaten fur Auslaender 1979

1.5- IMMIGRANT WORKERS BY INDUSTRY

Table 8: Foreign Employers by Industry in 1969

Source: Ausgewaehlte Strukturdaten fur Auslaender

When we first look at the table, the small rate of agriculture strikes us, on the other hand, industrial distribution takes the largest proportion. As mentioned before, the foreign workers were needed for the shortage in the field of agriculture and construction. However, they were not employed in agriculture as expected. In only a decade, most of them became employed in factories. Two third of the male foreign workers were in industry, including metal production and engineering, building and other manufacturing industries. Most of the remainder was in various service branches.

In 1969, foreign workers constituted seven percent of the total working population. Their share was the largest in building, with 12.4 percent, which was followed by metal industry with eleven per cent and non-metal manufacturing industries with 9.7 percent.

Table 9: Foreign Employees as Percentage of All Employees In 1969

Source: Ausgewaehlte Strukturdaten fur Auslaender

The number of foreign worker are striking in industries like plastic, rubber and asbestos, and earth, stones ceramics, glass where the working conditions were very unpleasant. Or, they were employed in fields like textile and clothing where the salaries were very low. Foreign workers were underrepresented in the sector of service, which requires specific skills. On the whole, foreign workers tend to be employed in fields, which German workers left because of the bad conditions.

In 1977, the situation was different compared to 1969: sixty percent of the foreign workers were employed in the processing industry, while the national percentage was thirty eight per cent, and seventy five per cent were in the processing industry, construction and mining, against a national average of fifty percent. The remaining, twenty five per cent were in the business of service,

mostly in restaurants and hotels. So, in more than a decade there was a tendency to move from manufacturing and construction industry to the field of service.

Table 10: Distribution of the Foreign Workers

From the table 10, from 1972 to 1979, we assume that the number of foreigners in the service sector was increasing, while the processing industry becoming less popular. However, foreigners still had the largest share in the processing industry, more than one forth of the workers were immigrants. The hotel and restaurant sector was the second with twenty one per cent, followed by the textile and clothing industry with 19.3 per cent.

1.6 CONCLUSION

At the beginning, the immigration to Germany was thought to be a temporary fact to provide labor supply. Accordingly, residence rights of immigrants were extremely limited. During the recession of 1966-67 foreign labor force decreased enormously. Soon after the recession, it was clear that foreign workers were permanent necessity for the progress of German economy. This idea had the German government make new policies about the integration of immigrants. Although the number of dependants of foreign workers grew, the principle of German immigration ideology was to satisfy labor needs and the legal situation of immigrants remained restricted

2-MIGRATION FROM TURKEY TO GERMANY

2.1 SITUATION IN TURKEY

During the fifties, Turkey was an agricultural country, with agriculture producing about 41% of the national income and over 80% of exports. Moreover, more than three-quarters of the active population were employed in the field of agriculture, which was about twelve million. In order to industrialize the country and speed up the growth, Turkish governments experienced two five year development plan until 1973, first during 1962-67 and the second 1968-1972. The first development plan’s goal was to move the county toward a more hopeful situation. During that period, seven percent growth rate was achieved. The second five year development plan was more ambitious compared to the first one. However, it failed, the rate of inflation rate increased, which gave its first signs during the first five-year development plan. Later on, foreign aid and the devaluation became obligatory for the government. The unemployment rate rose from 100 in 1962 to 162 in 1972 and the official total unemployed population was about two million out of approximately sixteen million people.

Table 11: Number of Unemployed People in Turkey Between 1966 and 1974

Source: United Nations Statistical Data Book, 1980

As a result of the depressing situation, exporting workers became favorable policy to the government. Therefore, recruitment agreements were made with Western countries, beginning with Germany in 1961.

2.2 REASONS FOR MIGRATION TO GERMANY

There are many factors that act as causes to the Turkish migration to Germany. These factors are from both, the German side, which are the pulling factors, and from the Turkish side, which are the pushing factors. The major pulling factors were expansive economic growth, unfavorable demographic situation with a declining birth rate and a steady mobility of native workers supported by additional training. T0herefore, there has been a need for cheap labor force in order to compete in the international market. German employers had to keep the costs of production low, thus they were seeking for cheap labor force. As mentioned in the first part of this paper, the need of cheap labor force increased with the closing up of the East German border, since the primary source of labor force has declined with this action. And, lastly, the steady upward mobility of the native workers, supported by the additional vocational training in Germany, has caused a trend of leaving undesirable jobs to foreign working population. These evidences support the argument that the Germany needed and welcomed Turkish immigrants.

On the other hand, unemployment, poverty, and economic underdevelopment in Turkey were among the main push factors from the Turkish side. According to Nermin Abadan Unat the financial problems related to unemployment was the first one among the main push factors favorizing the migration with 62 percent. Securing the future, vocational training and desire to know foreign countries come after it.

During the sixties and seventies the number of people who are self-employed or unemployed due to the population and lack of job creation, were too high, in Turkey. In addition to this, there was an enormous growth of population in Turkey, because of the increasing birth rate and declining mortality trend. The potential labor force between 15 and 65 years cannot exceed fifty percent of the population. These aspects plus the lack of employment possibilities in central and Eastern Anotolia were the causes of unemployment in Turkey. The unemployment, which was seen in the rural areas, first resulted in an extensive migration to the Western cities of Turkey, causing an over-urbanization in cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Therefore, due to the fact that, even these metropol were unable to create job for the unemployed population, the migration took an international dimension. All these arguments show that unemployment was a dominant social problem in Turkey.

2.3 MIGRATION PHASE

After 1973, Turkey experienced the third five-year development plan, which lasted until 1977 and which was the most ambitious compared to the other ones. Accordingly, manufacturing exports doubled, but, on the other hand the inflation rate accelerated.

Before the recruitment agreement was signed with Federal Republic of Germany in 1961, only individuals or small groups had migrated. However, after the agreement, growing demands of German employers for additional labor force have been well accepted by the unemployed Turks.

Table 12: Turkish Workers in the Federal Republic of Germany

Source: Informationen zur Auslaenderbeschaeftigung

Every year until the decision to stop the recruitment, Turkish population in Germany increased, except the economic recession of 1966-67, where 70.000 Turkish workers were discharged. However, they did not return to Turkey, instead, they tried to find jobs in other European countries like, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands. In the spring of 1967, all the workers who were discharged were back to work. In 1974, Turkish population was the highest of all foreigners. Consequently, the number of Turkish workers’ associations in Federal Germany increased to 112.

2.4 CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TURKISH MIGRANTS

When we look into the characteristic of Turkish workers in Germany at the beginning of the migration period, it is assumed that they consist mostly of men. However, with the time, especially after 1967, the ratio of women has grown constantly. The reason of this change can be the fact that some field like textile, electronics, food processing attracted mainly women workers, whose wage scale was considerably lower compared to that of men. At the beginning, it was much annoying for women to leave their villages and go work in an other country. Also, statistical figures show us that Turkish couples in Germany tend to be jointly after some time elapsed.

Another trend taking place in this immigration process is that, almost all of the Turkish workers going to Germany to work are among the poorer classes in Turkey and mostly from rural areas. Keeping in mind that, these people who are from the rural areas of Turkey are very devoted to their traditions and cultural identities and are more conservative, it is not surprising to see that they faced enormous adaptation problems.

Although Turkish workers in Germany were in general from the poorer and uneducated class, coming from the rural areas of Turkey, they were among the highest skilled workers that Germany recruited. This caused Germany to prefer Turkish workers, regularly. As James E. Akre mentions in his essay “ While other Mediterranean countries were much unwilling to give up their skilled labor force, Turkey has exported 26.4 percent in 1968, 28.2 in 1969, 34 percent in 1970 and 46.3 percent in 1971 of its qualifies manpower”. If we were to generalize the characteristics of the Turkish labor population in Germany, we could say that it is mainly male, young and with an average of five year of primary school education. The workers in Germany, are either isolated from the Germans, or did not integrate into German society. They live in ghetto-like dwelling units (Heims-dormitories), because they have little interest in language leaning, and therefore, they can not interact with German people. The female workers have a comparatively higher adjustment degree. The Turkish population in Germany shows a great solidarity between countrymen, with little interest in vocational training, and a very strong motivation for money and saving.

2.5 SOCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO MIGRATION

At the beginning, the migration process was seemed to be going on in favor of both sides, making both the giver (Turkey) and the taker (Germany) advantageous. The giving side benefited because, the immigration helped to reduce its unemployment rate by some degree, while the taking side took advantage of the receiving cheap labor force, which is necessary for its economic progress. However as time has elapsed, and the migration changed phases and increased by large amounts, this situation turned out to be a source of many problems in the social structure of both countries.

It is certain that exporting workers to Germany helped Turkey with the balance of payments by an increase of workers going abroad and the amount of foreign exchange they remit. Although the workers’ remittances contributed a lot to the general Turkish economy, there have been a considerable number of socially negative consequences of the migration process. First of all, most of the Turkish migrant workers possess position in jobs that do not require any skill, like manufacturing or construction. Their occupational distribution was completely different from that of Turkey’s active population. In other words, Turkish immigrants worked in manufacturing and various factory jobs instead of agriculture. As few of them received formal training, either in industrial skill, or in the language, a high rate of job changes occurred due to the unsatisfaction of the employer or due to feeling frustrated with their work situation. As Suzanne Paine mentions in her essay about the situation of Turkish immigrants in Germany, the earnings of the Turkish workers have been much higher than in Turkey, around two or three times higher than an urban worker, and four or five times higher than a poorer rural counterpart. However, as the Turkish workers put most of their earnings into saving or sent them to their families in Turkey, they experienced an extremely a lower standard of living. In general, like other immigrants, Turkish workers worked in very unpleasant social situations. Most of them had to leave their families back in Turkey and had to live in accommodations provided by their factory.

2.6 CONCLUSION

Turkey has benefited a lot from the migration as much as Germany in the field of economics. The unemployment rate has declined, as the government decided to export the excess labor. The migration has also played an important role for the balance of payment and the rise of the growth rate. Turkey’s migration process is an example of how exporting labor could help to the achievement of economic progress.

On the other hand, it is disappointing to see that the Turkish migrants in Germany are having social problems. Especially, their offspring can no longer adopt themselves into either of the cultures, as they are raised in Germany with the combination of Turkish and German cultures. Although, today, Germany is uncomfortable with the density of the Turkish population, which is about two million, it has to accept the fact that it can not send the ones that are already migrated and got the permission to be German citizens. It has to work on policies to integrate them more into its own society, for the benefit of its economy and the prevention of disorder in both societies.