West German Cities and the End of Guest Worker Recruitment, 1973–1978

Abstract

This article examines the response of West German cities to the end of guest worker recruitment in 1973 and to the federal government's implementation of its foreigner policy of “consolidation” in the mid-1970s. It argues that cities critiqued federal policies as failing to address the long-term impact of a permanent migrant population and called for a more comprehensive immigration policy that addressed such a population. Fearing potential social problems from a settled foreigner population, cities saw greater social infrastructure investments as essential for the integration of not just individual guest workers but entire foreigner families. By continuing to support the reunification of foreigner families after the end of guest worker recruitment, cities decoupled their assessment of a resident foreigner population from a purely labor market perspective and thought more broadly of the multifaceted impact and demands that the foreigner population made on their communities.