The „guest worker“ policy

Back to: History and Background of Migration in Austria

In the 1950s, a labour shortage also made itself felt for the first time in Austria, which was intensified by the emigration of Austrian workers to Germany and Switzerland. To remedy this shortage, Italian workers were recruited for the construction industry as early as 1961. Based on bilateral agreements, the recruitment of workers and their journey to Austria was to be organised by locally established offices.

The first of these recruitment agreements was concluded with Spain in 1962 – and had practically no consequences. After the Association Agreement between the European Economic Community (EEC) and Turkey in 1963, the recruitment agreement with Turkey followed in the following year. In 1966, a recruitment agreement (including a social agreement) was also signed with Yugoslavia. A social agreement with Turkey followed in 1969.

The main principle of the „guest worker“ system was the rotation of temporary workers, i.e. the „guest workers“ – initially the vast majority of men without their families – were to return to their home countries as soon as possible and, if necessary, be replaced by new foreign workers. As a consequence of this policy, some 265,000 people immigrated to Austria between 1961 and 1974. In 1971 the proportion of foreign workers was 6.1%, but their share of the population was only 2.8%; in 1973 78.5% of „guest workers“ were Yugoslav citizens, 11.8% Turks.

However, the „guest worker“ system did not function as planned, as many „guest workers“ had already settled permanently in Austria in the 1970s. Immigration (again) became an essential element of Austria’s demographic development. While at the beginning migrant workers were mainly male workers without children and family members, in 1971 the proportion of women among the foreign resident population in Austria was already over 39%, that of children almost 15%.

1974 marks the first turning point in Austrian immigration policy. The international oil crisis led to increased competition on the labour market. The policy therefore aimed to reduce the number of „guest workers“ by stopping the recruitment of foreign workers and to persuade foreigners already present in the country to return to their home countries. In 1975, the Aliens Employment Act was passed, which gave Austrian citizens priority in the labour market. It was only after eight years of employment that foreign workers received a so-called „exemption certificate“, which guaranteed them unrestricted access to the Austrian labour market.

The recruitment freeze, however, had a completely unexpected side effect. Although the number of foreign employees fell by around 40% between 1974 and 1984, the recruitment freeze and the lack of a return option caused many „guest workers“ to significantly extend their length of stay and catch up with their families. This family reunification largely compensated for the return migration and the number of foreign residents remained almost constant.

This simultaneously led to an increase in the proportion of women and children among migrants. This was the first time that the problem of integrating foreign children and adolescents into the Austrian education and vocational training system had arisen.