Germany marks 60 years since Turkish ‘guest workers’ came during labour shortage

Germany has marked the 60th anniversary of the labour agreements that invited in entire generations of so-called Gastarbeiter or "Guest Workers" from Turkey – just as the country struggles with a new labour shortage.

Today nearly three million people living in Germany can trace their roots back to the waves of migration that followed the 1961 labour agreement.

On Tuesday, president Frank Walter Steinmeier conceded that his country was late to recognise the contribution of these workers it invited to fill its huge post-war labour shortage– in its mines, car factories and train depots.

“We owe them a lot, with their help our country has increased its economic strength and prosperity, and has turned into a more open and diverse society,” he told Turkey’s Hürriyet newspaper. “It took a very long time for politics and the people to realise that these so-called guest workers were neither guests nor only workers. Today, these people became a part of Germany with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

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As proof of the contribution made by the German-Turkish community he cited the scientist couple Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin, both children of migrants, who developed the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19.

As Germany’s post-pandemic economy begins to recover, the state statistics office has sounded the alarm that a serious labour gap is about to become chronic. Demographic shifts mean an entire generation of skilled German engineers, carpenters and builders are in the final stages of their working life and, between now and 2035, the number of pensioners will jump 25 per cent.

Researchers say that eight out of 10 members of the Turkish-Germany community experience racism and social exclusion in education, work or housing at least once a year

Germany’s federal labour agency said Germany needs around 400,000 skilled workers per year to compensate for that departure.

Almost every sector is already feeling a shortage of skilled candidates for vacant positions, in particular IT, the medical sector, care, and craft trades.

Industry lobby groups are demanding Germany’s new government, whenever it begins work, make a renewed push on world labour markets.

West Germany's post-war labour agreements with Turkey, Italy and Greece brought an estimated 900,000 men, women and children into the country.

Around half of Turkish arrivals eventually left after West Germany, shaken by the oil crisis, ended the labour agreement in 1975. The other half stayed and new Turkish-dominated inner-city ghettos sprung up in many major cities.

Researchers say that, though gaps are closing with mainstream German society, eight out of 10 members of the Turkish-Germany community experience racism and social exclusion in education, work or housing at least once a year. And, despite living in a largely secular German society, researchers say the number of devout Muslims has remained steady.

“Emotional bonds with Turkey are still very, very intense, even in the third generation,” said Prof Haci-Halil Uslucan, head of the Centre for Turkish Studies and Migration Research at the University of Essen-Duisburg. “This is despite the fact that they were born here and in many instances only really know Turkey from what others have told them or from holiday impressions.”