Policy with Respect to Aliens, and Migration Research, in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1973–1983

Abstract

In this paper, policies in the Federal Republic of Germany with regard to the recruitment of labour are considered. Though this recruitment discontinued in 1973, the immigration of family members has been allowed to continue ever since. Thus a large group of migrant workers and their families now live in the Federal Republic. As migrant workers they occupy a low rank in the social hierarchy of the German population. In the first part of this paper, the development is briefly sketched of official government policy concerning aliens at the federal and Länder (state) levels since 1973, with reference to the guidelines of the Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union, the Free Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Party. Then a short description is given of the current research on migrant workers in the FRG: What the expectations of politicians and administrators are with respect to such research; the main problem areas on which the research focuses; how experts view the demand for and the current state of the research; and, finally, in which areas the most important formulations of theory have been made in migration research.