Gastarbeiter Migration Revisited: Consolidating Germany’s Position as an Immigration Country

This chapter examines the post-2007 Southern European migration to Germany, arguing that this highly recruited and sought after migration has served to consolidate Germany’s status as an immigration country. This migration flow has some parallels to the post-war recruitment of Gastarbeiter, or guest workers, although it differs strongly in skill level – today’s migration is more highly-skilled than the post-war migration. The recruitment is both top-down and bottom-up, with the Federal Employment Agency, regional offices, trade associations and employers themselves all recruiting skilled Southern Europeans. The migration is seen in Germany as solving the current Fachkräftemangel, or lack of skilled workers, resulting from the emerging demographic challenges. Unlike post-war recruitment, which was intended to be temporary, Germany hopes that today’s migrants will remain.