This essay won 1st Place in the 2025 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “Examine the evolution of a relationship between two countries in response to a global challenge. What lessons can other nations learn from their cooperation or conflict?”
“We wanted workers, but we got people instead”
Swiss writer Max Firsch’s view —or warning— on the “Gastarbeiter” scheme of the 1960s rings especially true in the story of Germany and Turkey. Gastarbeiter —or in English, guest worker— refers to foreign workers who had migrated to West Germany starting from 1955 in lieu of a series of bilateral treaties made with several European countries and Turkey—referred to in German as Gastarbeiterprogramm. Contemporary Turkish-German relations were forged through decades of migration and diaspora politics. Their shared history goes on to show how the constant global challenge that is migration, when politicized, can deepen conflict or ease it.
After WWII, Germany was struggling to find laborers while Turkish workers were struggling to find jobs. This opportunity led the Turkish–German Labor Recruitment Agreement to go into effect in 1961 as a part of the Gastarbeiterprogramm. Throughout the 12 years in which the program was active, a total 650,000 –documented–Turkish guest workers had migrated to Germany. The recruitment of workers was based on a rotation principle –where one guest worker would return home after one or two years– and like their given name suggests, they would be guests. All across Germany, factories for Ford and Mercedes were now filled with Turkish guest workers, production and consumption were rising—the program seemed and felt like a success.
Maybe through the preconceived notion that the program would be temporary or due to its view as a domestic, economic policy, at that time, the effects the program would have in the long run were simply underestimated. Neither the workers themselves, the German government, nor its citizens would be able to foresee that these “guests” would go on to form communities, families, and eventually, a separate identity—Almancı, a Turkish word that translates literally to German-er. As Kahn puts it into words, there is a “perception that the migrants living in Germany (Almanya) have undergone a process of Germanization, rendering them no longer fully Turkish.”
Post-WWII and post-colonial migration rose steadily until the end of the Cold War; despite the cessation of the program in 1973. Workers who were supposed to go back home had already brought their families and traditions. Soon, Turks became the largest ethnic minority in West Germany. However, legal aspects such as citizenship issues and social integration lagged, setting up the stage for the current day crisis at hand.
The harsh reality is there—it is inevitable for a migrant community to experience alienation and discrimination, no matter time and place. The bleak fate of a predominantly Muslim Turkish diaspora was furthered following the 9/11 attacks as Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments grew across Europe and the Global West. Soon, tension and aggression replaced integration and acceptance.
The breaking point came in 2015 with the refugee influx Europe experienced following the Syrian Civil War—millions of refugees were rushing toward the gates of Europe, but first, they were all going through Turkey. By 2016, 4 million documented refugees were living in Turkey, which led the country to strike a deal with the EU to continue hosting the surplus of refugees in exchange for financial aid. It became clear that Germany and the rest of Europe were now relying on Turkey’s border control to contain millions of refugees.
The refugee influx would still be felt in Europe, heavily, and this put a strain on Turkish-German relations with anti-immigrant sentiments rising across Europe. Diaspora and migration politics became a part of everyday life, affecting the Turkish diaspora who had been living in Germany for decades nearly as much as the incoming refugees. Turkish President Erdogan’s threats to literally “open the gates”, were not making things easier for the Turkish diaspora either. As they became the forefront of daily news and hate fueled tabloids, Turkish migrants began asserting more political visibility while the broader European backdrop shifted to the right—the far-right. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a German far-right party founded in 2013, would campaign off of anti-immigrant sentiments, framing immigrants of Turkish origin as symbols of failed integration at any chance given. “Islam does not belong to Germany.” stated Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD, in 2017.
In contrast to the usual anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments of the AfD, Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the recent 2024 EU election declared: “Turks in Germany should vote for the AfD”. The contradiction is apparent, the reason behind it is even more apparent—the Turkish diaspora is easily portrayed as outsiders but also worth courting as voters by far-right rhetoric.
Unfortunately, exploitation through rhetoric wasn’t only from the German far-right. “Assimilation is a crime against humanity,” President Erdoğan stated in 2008. A brief –but explanatory– excerpt from a speech to a crowd of 20,000 Turkish immigrants in Cologne. His rebuke of assimilation isn’t a rebuke of integration, rather a strategy to maintain loyalty among migrants of Turkish origin. Besides, Turkey has long invested in this strategy through government-backed mosques or cultural centers in areas with a larger density of Turkish migrants. Although the number is debated, approximately 4 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany—the largest minority group in the country. Many retain Turkish citizenship, vote in Turkish elections, and consume Turkish state media, allowing the Turkish government to maintain its soft power in Germany.
The Turkish diaspora is a community that has become a contested tool, both for Germany through the far-right and for Turkey through Erdoğan. For no one but themselves, they are human. A humanitarian crisis of hate crimes and the systematic discrimination of millions became a bargaining chip in geopolitical negotiation.
Today, the world is defined by unprecedented connectivity and globalization; the movement of ideas, news, and people themselves is faster than ever. Labor-driven migration –whether it’s the 19th century transatlantic immigration to the U.S., the post-colonial migration to Europe or the current “brain drain” from the Global South to the West– is not something new. Yet, migration today faces a familiar but larger challenge: nationalism and far-right rhetoric pushed further by populist leaders.
The relationship between Germany and Turkey illustrates that migration diplomacy requires mutual opportunism. The early years of the Gastarbeiterprogramm had provided much needed solutions to problems both countries were experiencing. But Turkey and Germany’s relationship –like every bilateral relationship between countries– is a balance game on a dingy tightrope. On the other hand, the unique history Germany and Turkey have has brought in a question: can diaspora communities build bridges between countries? Or are they bound to remain a tightrope?
Germany and Turkey tell the world something different: that migrants can change borders—without a single line on the map actually moving. It reveals how systematic migration between two countries can completely transform bilateral foreign policy but it also goes on to show the dehumanization process millions go through.
Pushing politics aside, what Mesut Özil, a Turkish-German who played for the German National Football Team, once said encapsulates the fragile sense of belonging felt by millions: “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.”
References
Featured/Headline Image Caption and Citation: German-Turkish Baklava Düsseldorf 2009, Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons | CC License, no changes made
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