Job Promotion and Labour Turnover Among Spanish Workers in West Germany, 1960–1973

Abstract

Spain became part of the guestworker system with the signing of the Agreement between Spain and West Germany in 1960 to the end of the system in 1973. The question of the integration of immigrants in the labour market is a long-standing focus of sociological and economic research on immigration to West Germany. This chapter revisits the case of Spanish workers from an historical perspective. It considers two areas of integration—job promotion and labour turnover. By combining survey based research on the immigrant stock with qualitative material originating from both the host and home country, it reveals details that are not captured in official national data. The central themes of my case study include the inter-related issues of immigrants’ previous positions in their home country, their industrial roles in West Germany, their high rate of eventual return home and the legal obstacles they encountered as immigrants and non-European Economic Community (EEC) citizens.