Leben im Versteck. Eine multiperspektivische Annäherung an die Geschichte von Kindern ausländischer Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter in der Schweiz der Hochkonjunktur

Abstract

According to an estimate from the 1970s, during the boom years after the Second World War, 10,000 to 15,000 children of foreign workers lived secretly in Switzerland because their parents had no right to family reunification due to their seasonal status. As a result, many of these children stayed in hiding in Switzerland, sometimes for several months, often for several years. The clandestine character of this situation is reflected in the almost complete absence of these children in the historical record. The paper argues that a historical reappraisal of the history of the hidden children requires a multiperspective approach, drawing on a variety of source genres and sources. Three approaches are presented: an approach that focuses on sources from popular culture in order to highlight the gender-historical dimensions of the topic; a second one that looks at the mobilisation of civil society in terms of solidarity and lobbying; and a third that examines political discourses between national and international agenda-setting. The approaches reveal that the story of the hidden children is able to challenge long-held certainties of post-war history at the intersection of gender and social history.