This Day in History: September 10, 1964, West Germany Celebrates Arrival of One-Millionth Guest Worker

Earlier this week a massive crowd of Germans loudly applauded the arrival of hundreds of asylum seekers at the Munich train station. Weary after days stuck in a web of bureaucratic confusion and less-than-ideal refuge in Budapest, the warm reception stood out as a rare bright note in last week’s migration-dominated headlines.

Fifty one years ago today Germans celebrated the arrival of another foreigner, Amando Sá Rodrigues. Rodrigues, a Portuguese guest worker, was met at the Cologne train station and given flowers and a moped to celebrate the arrival of West Germany’s one millionth “Gastarbeiter.”

The West German guest worker program started in 1955 with the recruitment of workers from southern Europe. In 1961, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, the recruitment program expanded to include, most notably, Turkey. The program was initiated to address the need for a mobile, cheap workforce within the booming West German economy. Guest workers initially signed 2-year rotational contracts but once employers realized the tremendous expenditures involved with bringing and training a new set of workers every two years, the 2-year rotational structure was quietly abandoned.

Guest workers, initially viewed as temporary guests, were welcomed by the German public. The positive vibes faded however by the late sixties, as the economy took a downturn and the public started to view the guest worker population as a permanent fixture rather than a temporary visitor. As such the “Gastarbeiter” program was halted in 1973 during the global oil crisis. Ironically, while ending the program was expected to curb the number of immigrants, it actually had the opposite effect. Many guest workers, especially those from Turkey, decided to bring their families over permanently once the guest worker program was put to an end out of fear that they wouldn't be able to return to Germany if they left. Today people with Turkish background form largest ethnic minority in Germany, totaling around 3 million. 

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see what lessons Germany learned from its experience with its guest workers, as it is now taking in a large number of migrants once again. A fundamental difference this time around is that the refugees are being viewed as permanent new members of German society right off the bat. As an example of this new orientation towards migration, there have been efforts from the German government to ramp up the number of language instruction programs available to the incoming refugees. In the coming years, we will see how Germany finds a place in the fabric of German society for these new migrants.