Turkish Immigration To Germany

Turkish Immigration To Germany

Turkish immigration to Germany has been an ongoing activity since the nineteen-nineties. Germans made an assumption that the visitors were going to return to their homes, an ignorance that has cost them the dilemma of integration. The country has experienced glitches as a consequence of failing to stipulate and enforce immigration policies. According to the Berlin Institute of Population and Development ( in text reference……),  amongst all other immigrants in Germany, the Turkish are the most uneducated and poor, which indicates that they are less integrated compared to other immigrants.  All this has caused many misunderstandings, failures, vague political ideas and ignorance of the real situation(Icduygu, 2004, pp.89). A German politician (who, when, where) talks of how both nationalities have not faced up to reality by assuming that the Turkish were only in the country as guest workers and would eventually leave.

Thesis Statement:

The history of the immigration started with signing of a treaty between the Turkish government and the German nation in 1961. The treaty pertained to matters entailing recruitment. The thriving German economy resulted in an increase for labor demand. The only qualification required then were vaccination and passing of medical tests which so hundreds of Turks boarding a train and settling in different industrial zones with West Germany. Most of the immigrants were at the prime time of their lives in regards to age and that means that they were delivered their services proficiently. Their labor capacity was at its level best and this continued to boost Germans economy. The German government preference was mostly the semi-skilled laborers who were to be paid poorly(Pyatt, 1987, pp.330). The immigrant were expected to live in the different areas of the industrial zones and mostly shucked up together. The expectation was that, they were there to work and after they were done with their duty they would return to their native land. Therefore no one was concerned that the immigrants did not blend in perfectly with the German society. They failed to educate them because according to them they were nothing more than guest workers.

The government saw the increase in numbers of the immigrants and put forth a law that intercepted the number of years that a foreign worker could stay in their country. This however, was put aloof after the industrial world wanted to curb the training expense. In addition, the German government preferred the Turkish workers because their demands were less as compared to the German labors, yet, the results would be the same or even better. The Turks were also interested in going home but the uncertainty of the safety of their own country made it harder. Turkey faced a lot of military coups and this made their country unsafe for them to return which prolonged their stay in Germany. Learning the German language was not a glitch as such as most of the factories had interpreters. Some of the immigrant workers having no hopes of moving back to their country soon, they opted to move to some of Germans’ suburbs. They brought their families that were left behind to their refuge country. Due to their increase in numbers it they moved to homes that the Germans frequently vacated. This brought contention for some of the politicians were not amused by such an integration. Unfortunately Germans economy was threatened in the year 1973 a stall that made the Turks guest workers to be seen as a burden to the country’s economy(Pyatt, 1987, pp.347).. In an effort to send the Turks home, they offered a substantial monetary reward for them to return to their native home.

Some schools in Germany introduced lessons in Turkish which was to prepare them for their future life in Turkey. This caused a generation of bilingual illiterates where some students were not very conversant with both languages.  This resulted in them not being very qualified in employment because of their lack in fluency. The dynamics changed and the country started demanding for more qualified staff and the chance for the Turks were very slim. The Germans and the Turks were forever at odds with politics brewing the contention. Politicians used the xenophobic rhetoric for their own political gains and this caused a lot of tension between the two nationalities. Today, the recognition of integration policies has seen the end of a contention that was unnecessary.  Integration is promoted in Germany just as political ideas and academics.

The Turkey immigration happened in six ways each with distinct traits. The first set of immigrants migrated for the sake of working in Germany. The opportunities of work were many due to the high demand for labors as a result of growing economy. As mentioned, after things worsened in in Turkey the second lot of immigrants came to Germany to look for safe refuge. Their native land had problems and the coups that occurred made the Turks to extend their stay in Germany and also bring in their people. The latest lot came to German to seek asylum and refuge most of them were political actors and professional who found it difficult to prove their worth because of lack of papers. Those are some of the reasons why Turks migrated a clear indication that what prompted the immigration was because of different reasons.

The macroeconomic effects on the host country and the Turkish people is different. Prior, the effects were both positive and negative in the host country as mentioned. Germany was able to meet the demand for laborers and the same time the guest workers were seen as burdens after the oil saga developed. For Turkey, they had the advantage of getting jobs but at the same time they lost skilled laborers. Currently, the rate of immigration between the two counties has declined with even the Turkey people moving back to their own native land(McDonald, 2005). Remittances are the money generated by the foreign workers and then they send it back homes. That is what most Turks used to do and are doing at the moment. Most immigrant’s ado that especially form developing countries. It is a good source of income for them and development.

Remittances have been a great source of revenue and currency since the sixties. The Turkish government need the revenue in order to source or even outsource technology that they need to keep development in their country growing. The immigration is evidently favors them in that sense. The remittances from the Turkish workers in Germany play an important role in international trade. It is argued that, the fluctuation of remittances have severe consequences to developing countries and in this Turkey is not excluded, (Sayan, 2003, pp.25). Sayan argues that, “remittances sent by the Turkish workers are pro-cyclical as are with the real GDP in Turkey but countercyclical with the output in Germany, (2003, pp.25).”  He continues to show that, there is a strong co-dependence between the Turkish economy with the Turkishworkers; who follow the latest trends in development in their own country and react positively to them.

When the Turkish government agreed to sign the treaty it was in effort to help their own economy. They knew that the remittances would be of great help to them. Foreign aids and support came with many levies and consequences hence the remittances were the best way to pay for debts and interests that the country had incurred. In the nineties the GDP of Turkey corresponded to 2.3%.  The gap between the German economy and the Turkish government economically is really big. Hence, it is not a shock that German has a substantial amount of inflow remittance to Turkey. Research has shown that the amount of remittance sent by skilled laborers from German to Turkey is 0.04 billion dollars while that of unskilled is 0.36 billion dollars.

There are policy experiments when it comes to the immigration situation between the two. The first experiment comes in the economic effect on Turkey as there is a reduction in the number of skilled workers. The EU accession will see that one percent of the skilled workers move to Germany. This will affect the remittance that goes back to Turkey because of the diversity in number of immigrant workers in Germany. The normalization process will see that small percentage that moves to Germany does not get as much before because the German markets have adjusted the prices of their labor markets. This is because the supply of labor in German is regarded in terms of value.  This results in the GDP from the value added to decline by 0.14% this is as a result of the reduction in the number of skilled laborer in the country hence having a negative economic effect(Dimaranan et.al,2005),. This situation has resulted in the scarcity for skilled labor within the country. What is most felt is the impact on the GDP on outflow of the skilled workers as compared to the inflow of the remittance form the host country to the native country.  The real Turkish GDP increases by 0.04% as a result of employing the unskilled workers from the group of unskilled laborers to substitute those who have migrated to Germany. The combined impact of both scenarios is a decrease in the GDP because the positive impact is outweighed by the negative impact of losing skilled labor.

The price of factors in Turkey affect the real GDP from value added. A decrease in the price of factors is seen when Turkey loses the one percent of skilled workers as Germany gains. In addition an increase in remittance from German to Turkey is observed as well(Devarajan, et al., 1990, pp.637).  Moreover, the price of natural resources is not affected.  The resultant effect, is a 0.90% increase in price of skilled labor, 0.04% increase in price of capital, an increase of 0.94 in price of natural resources and 0.29% in price of land. In this case, capital to labor ratio increase with an increase in productivity of labor and its price too. This is because both the skilled and unskilled labor is lost in Turkey. Both skilled and unskilled labor move to Germany increasing the number of such laborers that is, their numbers double. This has an effect on an incremental effect on the price of capital, labor land and a decrease in the price of natural resources.

As mentioned earlier, skilled labor is scarce in Turkey(de Melo, 1989, pp.50). Unskilled labor send higher remittance to Turkey as compared to the skilled labor. This is because there is a greater number of unskilled labor in Germany from Turkeycompared to skill. Hence, the demand for imports increases increasing the import tariff revenue when it is the unskilled labor. Remittance is a great source of revenue and its decrease results into a negative impact of import revenue. A combination of the prices of factors decreases the real Turkish GDP(Dervis, 1982, pp. 66),.

There are several issues that Turks face in while leaving in Germany. The Turks are treated as aliens not as part of the German society. Even though some of the Turks have stayed in the country for years and some are born in Germany they are treated with alienation.  When it comes to education they are faced by bilingual illiteracy. So the Turkish government send some teachers to so teach the Turkish language. In regards to politics they are to be given right to vote despite o their nationality. The immigrants are also meant to be given citizenship. The immigrants are also meant to be given an equal chance if not fair in making decisions pertaining to the host country.

When it comes to Germany as earlier seen, the Turkish government is one benefited and as well faced a burden in hosting the Turkish immigrants. For one the Turks have provided cheap labor for Germany decreasing the price in factor of labor. With an increase in cheap labor has enhanced a growth in the German economy. It also improved Germans international relations by giving a good name to Germany that is by hosting the Turks who facing problems in their country.  With incoming immigrants the population growth in Germany increased which was heavily weighing of the resources available. This caused contention between the two nationalities especially when they realized that they might integrate with the Turks who they saw as mere workers. The unlearned Turks after the oil crisis had stalled on the economic growth of Germany, were in danger of unemployment and hence increasing the rate of crime rate and unemployment.

Conclusively, Germany is one of the countries that hosted diverse immigrants, the core ones being the Turks. The immigration process has been a major one and its history can be dated back from a treaty signed by the two nations. With a high demand for labor, Germany sought the assistance from Turkey and that is how the recent Turkish migration started. Remittance has been a big resultant product of the migration and has helped Turkey in many ways. As much as t Germany is negative about the migration, it failed to make immigration policies and was blinded by the benefits it received as cheap labor. The Turkish people found a place for refuge and opportunities in Germany and benefited from being there. This paper has explained how the GDP of Turkey is affected from value added and by what percentage. Different scenarios have been looked at and the resultant product from a combination of scenarios has been analyzed and the effect it has on prices and factors of production. Ultimately, the Turkish immigration into Germany has had significant effects on both countries – both positive and negative.

References;

• de Melo, J. and Robinson, S., (1989). ‘Product differentiation and the treatment of Foreign Trade in Computable General Equilibrium Models of Small Economies’, Journal of International Economics, Vol 27, pp 47-67.
• Devarajan, S., Lewis, J.D. and Robinson, S., (1990). ‘Policy Lessons from Trade-Focused, Two-Sector Models’, Journal of Policy Modeling, Vol 12, pp 625-657.
• Dervis, K., J. de Melo, and S. Robinson (1982) General Equilibrium Models for Development Policy, Cambridge University Press, pp 56-70.
• Dimaranan, B V. and R A. McDougall, Editors (2005) Global trade, assistance, and Production: The GTAP 6 Data Base, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University.
• Icduygu, A. (2004). “Demographic mobility and Turkey: Migration experiences and government responses“. Mediterranean Quarterly 15.4 (2004) 88-99.
• McDonald, S., Robinson, S. and Thierfelder, K., (2005). ‘A SAM Based Global CGE Model using GTAP Data’, Sheffield Economics Research Paper 2005:001. The University of Sheffield.
• Pyatt, G., (1987). ‘A SAM Approach to Modelling’, Journal of Policy Modeling, Vol 10, pp 327-389.