Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
March 2016
Extension of the work permit from 1969
Historical Context
On October 30, 1961, the Federal Government concludes a recruitment agreement with Turkey in Bad Godesberg. This agreement regulates the dispatch of workers to Germany. Following agreements with Italy (1955), Spain (1960), and Greece (1960), Turkish workers can now also apply for jobs in Germany.
The Turkish government aims to alleviate its desperate economic situation through the recruitment agreement with the Federal Republic. The ‘Gurbetçiler’ (roughly translated as ‘foreigners’, primarily referring to Turks heading to Germany) are supposed to acquire the necessary know-how for building up the Turkish industry, relieve the Turkish labor market, and bring foreign currency into the country. By the recruitment stop in 1973, 900,000 Turkish labor migrants come to Germany, with 400,000 returning to Turkey in the same period.
Short Biography
In 1962, Serdar Bozkurt learns from a newspaper in Turkey that the German company Mannesmann is looking for automotive mechanics. Against his father’s wishes, the 20-year-old applies and soon receives a work permit for the Federal Republic of Germany.
Serdar Bozkurt initially plans to stay in Germany for only three years, but then he meets his future wife Jutta. The couple marries in 1965 and has two sons. In the early 1970s, Serdar Bozkurt works as an interpreter at the German Employment Agency in Istanbul to recruit additional ‘guest workers’ for Mannesmann. In Duisburg, the couple strives for the integration of Turkish ‘guest workers’ and their families. At Serdar Bozkurt’s initiative, the first Foreign Advisory Council is established in 1975. In September 2015, Serdar Bozkurt was awarded the NRW Order of Merit for his commitment.
Significance of the Object
This document shows the decades-long perception of Turks as guests who are expected to return after a certain time: Serdar Bozkurt repeatedly has to renew his work permit in the 1960s, even though he was granted an unlimited residence permit due to his marriage to a German.
As the term ‘guest worker’ implies, the labor forces recruited from abroad were only planned for temporary employment in German companies, making their stay in Germany time-limited. Foreign policy at that time was primarily labor market policy, and for this reason, the German economy had significant influence: if the level of orders were to decline, they wanted to be able to quickly get rid of the ‘guest workers.’ Employers saw the migrant workers as a kind of ‘mobility reserve’ or ‘economic buffer.’ However, it soon became clear that this model was not profitable. The industry suffered high losses due to the constant retraining of new employees. Consequently, starting from the second half of the 1960s, the recruitment agreement with Turkey was revised, relaxing the fixed residence duration of a maximum of two years and extending it to three years. This legal change is also evident in Serdar Bozkurt’s ‘application for extension of the work permit.’ The employment office then extended his permit from June 24, 1969, to June 23, 1972. It is also noticeable that the title of the document ‘Extension of a Work Permit’ is printed in almost all the languages of the ‘guest workers’: Italian, Spanish, Turkish, and Greek.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de