Guest Workers, Social Order, and West German Municipalities, 1960–7

This article examines the response of West German cities and their main political pressure group, the Deutsche Städtetag (DST, The German Council of Municipalities) to the arrival of guest workers between 1960–7. It argues that unlike the federal government, almost all city authorities quickly understood that a portion of the guest workers would remain permanently in West Germany. As a result, the DST and most cities called for some form of guest worker integration already by the early 1960s. Although often expressing humanitarian concern for the guest workers, the cities framed guest worker integration in terms of limiting costs, preserving social order, and maintaining control over the guest workers. In their discussions on guest worker integration, West German cities racialized the guest workers from southern Europe by maintaining a hierarchy of difference with an assumption that the guest workers would never become fully German.