What question did this study set out to answer?

The research aims to understand how Turkish guest workers navigated barriers to achieve social and political integration in West Germany.

June 11, 2026Open Access

Striking for Belonging: Turkish Gastarbeiter and Integration in Postwar Germany

Key Points

The research aims to understand how Turkish guest workers navigated barriers to achieve social and political integration in West Germany.
Analyzes historical context of Turkish guest workers in West Germany
Examines participation in labor unions and works councils as pathways to inclusion
Explores the impact of state policies on guest worker experiences
Identified that labor unions served as crucial platforms for integration despite state exclusion.
Demonstrated that active involvement in work councils enabled permanent inclusion.
Highlighted that the 'guest worker myth' was challenged through individual and collective agency.

Abstract

This thesis investigates how Turkish Gastarbeiter (guest workers) overcame structural marginalization and political exclusion to achieve social and political integration in postwar West Germany. While the German state initially utilized the "guest worker myth" to treat these individuals as temporary this research argues that active participation in labor union structures and works councils provided critical, non-state pathways for permanent inclusion.

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Institutions

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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