Divided attention?: the Greek state and the education of the Gastarbeiter children in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960s–70s)

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the title of the article shows, the Greek state’s attention to the education of its Gastarbeiters’ children appeared divided. The pupils’ attention was shared between the German and the Greek schools and their exigencies. Equally the Greek state’s care was divided between pleasing the different subnational and transnational actors and maintaining cohesive policymaking regarding education. Using the correspondence of the ministries, excerpts from the printed and audiovisual media, and social scientists’ contributions, the author explores how the Greek state apparatus – both authoritarian and democratic – expressed its transnational affect towards its citizens abroad, and most importantly their children, the future of the nation.