Since Turkey's recent introduction to the EU passage for economic migrants to Western Europe has never been clearer, it is likely that many Turks will continue to head out into Europe in the forseeable future. In the UK we host around half a million Turks, roughly the same as The Nederlands, and over triple that of Italy, a nation I have previously blogged about needing more young workers to prevent a population collapse, yet it is in Germany where the most Turks have elected to make their home. Germany hosts in the region of 3,500,000 Turks, most of which have been migrating there steadily since the early 1960s.
There were a variety of reasons for this mass migration to Germany, the Berlin wall was erected in 1961, cutting off a host of unemployed East Germans from jobs they would otherwise have filled, leaving vast underemployment in Western Germany. At the same time, Turkey's population was growing, especially in urban areas, leading to high unemployment of professional Turks. This combination of circumstances incentivised an agreement between Germany and Turkey, to allow a large influx of young Turkish migrants into the German labour market, which couldn't source sufficient workers from the Mediterranian nations. The agreement was nearly not made at all due to fears about the cultural differences being too great, but pressure from the USA (who wanted to try and stablise Turkey's population growth) eventually caused Germany to agree.
Turks first began moving to Germany in 1961 (the year of the agreement), when roughly 7,000 Turks made the move as 'two year migrants', though the majority of these were allowed to stay due to pressure from German employers who were keen to keep these industrious workers. There have been times when Turks have made headway in returing to Turkey, namely in 1966-67, 1973, and 1981-84, due to a deep recession, the great oil crisis, and the joint scenario of high unemployment and a government policy offering grants for Turkish workers to return home for good respectively. Despite all this, the outflows have not matched the inflows, and nowadays Germany is still by far the greatest host for German migrants. After 1989 and the fall of the Berlin wall Neo-Nazi groups and hate crimes sprang up over the 'newly unified' country, targeting the Turkish migrants who had helped the country so much.
Nowadays, Germany has become far more tolerant of the Turkish people living there, the majority of Turks follow German culture, and their Turkish language has been modified into a German dialect, Turkish is now registered as a subject taught in most schools. Most Turks live in the biggest cities like Mainz, Stuttgart and Munich, whilst a smaller amount commute in from dormitory settlements, mostly the Turks are in what used to be West Germany. It appears fair to say that the input of the Turkish migrant workers has helped Germany in the last half century, and they must be somehow partially accredited with Germany's prior title as the 'Economic Hub of Europe', perhaps if British people grew to be as tolerant of Polish migrant workers as the Germans are now to the Turks, we could see an economic boom of a similar grandeur.
Its not an 'Atlantic Crossing', but it seems all these 'Young Turks' have found success in Germany!
