| Summary/Abstract |
THE MASSIVE FLOW of refugees and migrants into Europe is a problem of political, humanitarian, social, demographical, and economic dimensions. How did Germany come to be seen as the Promised Land by the majority of migrants? History provides answers. First of all, there was postwar resettlement of ethnic Germans ousted from East Prussia, with 7.8 million moving to West Germany and 2.9 million to East Germany in the 1950s. Then, between 1955 and 1973, West Germany's "economic miracle" produced tremendous demand for low-skilled labor. To attract guest workers, West Germany signed agreements with Spain and Greece in 1960, Turkey in 1961, Morocco in 1963, Portugal in 1964, Tunisia in 1965, and Yugoslavia in 1968. Guest workers from those countries made a tangible contribution to West German prosperity. The oil crisis of 1973 forced West Germany to slash its imports of labor. While 870,000 guest workers arrived in Germany in 1973, only 370,000 did in 1975. Economists labeled this a "consolidation phase."
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