Draft:Recruitment policy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Federal Foreign Office, Bonn 1960: Signing of a treaty on guest workers between the Federal Republic and Spain by State Secretary Hilger van Scherpenberg (right) and Spanish Ambassador Luis de Urquijo

From the mid-1950s, the Recruitment policy of the Federal Republic of Gemany recruited and placed workers from abroad. The Federal Government pursued this policy until a few years after the first oil crisis of 1973. The basic recruitment agreements for this were concluded between 1955 and 1968 with Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. On the basis of these agreements, Germany granted foreign workers a temporary Residence in the country for the purpose of earning an income. Recruitment agreements were concluded with other countries in order to expand professional knowledge. The recruited workers were called guest workers, although this term also became popular as a general term for labor migrants from the 1960s onwards after the de facto abolition of the time limit. In total, around 14 million guest workers came to Germany between 1955 and 1973, while 11 to 12 million returned to their countries of origin. On November 23, 1973, a recruitment freeze imposed by the Social Liberal Coalition came into force.