Friedrich Merz is unwisely trying to revive the discredited postwar ‘guest worker’ programme
Friedrich Merz’s government has sent a clear message to anyone thinking about coming to live in Germany: don’t. Yet its message to those who want to come to Germany to work is: we need you.
This might sound like a contradiction, but it is a revival of the thinking that drove the “guest worker” programme of the postwar boom years. Between 1955 and 1973, West Germany sought to rebuild its economy by attracting labour, mainly from Turkey but also from Italy, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Yet it did so without giving much consideration to the human needs of the people coming.
Repeating that experiment, and the social tensions it created, at this moment would be even worse.
The Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) fuelled record growth and labour shortages. Now, Germany’s economy is in recession, but it desperately needs people to fulfil basic public services. Above all, it needs them to help finance its mounting pensions bill.
