So-called guest workers | A “slap in the face of this generation”

Women from the generation of so-called guest workers are particularly often poor in old age. There are various reasons for this. Photo: IMAGO/Funke Photo Services An average pension of 890 euros, three times as likely to receive basic security in old age, twice the risk of poverty: This is the reality of life for pensioners of Turkish origin compared to that of people with German citizenship. The media service “Integration” requested the figures from the Federal Statistical Office.

“Behind these numbers there are stories like that of the father of my co-speaker Nagea Belekhrif,” says Jennifer Merx, from the Federal Working Group Migrant Left/Left*Kanax of the Left Party, to “nd”. That father was someone who had stood at the blast furnace for over 40 years, ruined his health in the three-shift system and never learned or dared to negotiate wages. “But there are also mothers who did the unpaid care work without childcare or access to the labor market.”

After the German-Turkish recruitment agreement was signed, around 870,000 so-called guest workers from Turkey came to West Germany until the recruitment stop in 1973. 65 years after the signing, pensioners of Turkish origin receive on average around 360 euros less than those who were born with German citizenship. Women are particularly affected by poverty. They make up almost half of pension recipients of Turkish origin.

The reasons for the lower pensions are varied. “Guest workers” received lower wages, which they originally compensated for with overtime and bonuses for hard work. The difficult working conditions also have an impact on their health. Turkish pensioners receive disability pensions more than twice as often as all pensioners.

However, during the oil crisis of the 1970s - the same one that brought about the time change - they were the first to be laid off from the factories. Due to periods of unemployment in the meantime and because many were already older when they came to Germany, they were able to accumulate fewer years of employment for pension entitlements. They also had to spend more money on housing because they often lived in rent. To date, there is a significant gap between the living situation of former guest workers and people born in Germany.

The recruitment agreement also did not include any language courses and generally few opportunities for further training. Discrimination also led to “guest workers” working more often in lower-paying jobs. The German Center for Migration Research (Dezim) found in 2024 that even higher education and full-time employment do not protect against poverty equally - racism is therefore a central factor in Germany.

“There are stories behind these numbers.”

“Apart from making naturalization easier, there has been little political effort to improve the situation of former guest workers,” concludes the “Integration” media service. The social scientist Eric Seils from the Economic and Social Sciences Institute of the trade union-affiliated Böckler Foundation explained in an interview with the media service in 2023: "The concept of recruiting guest workers was based on non-integration."

How can these differences be minimized? “In order to increase pensions, it is important that rapid labor market integration takes place, but not in the low-wage sector, but as skilled workers,” explains Maria Metzing from the social insurance department at the Federal University of Public Administration “nd”. Metzing was until recently head of integration monitoring at Dezim. In concrete terms, this means: language acquisition through integration courses, fast, unbureaucratic recognition procedures and reliable child care. There are still bottlenecks, particularly in regions where many people with a history of immigration live.

With regard to pension policy, the federal government is ignoring the reality of life of the former “guest workers,” criticizes Jennifer Merx from the BAG Migrantische Linke/Links*Kanax. Debates about raising the retirement age or abolishing the discount-free pension for those who have been insured for a long time are “a slap in the face of this generation.”

»Anyone who has worked at a blast furnace, on a construction site or in cleaning for 40 years simply cannot survive until 67 or 68 in terms of health. For these people, any increase in the entry age means a pure pension cut through the back door. Merx calls for a poverty-proof minimum pension of 1,450 euros net and an active and citizen-oriented pension insurance.

For decades, the SPD was the party of the so-called guest workers. The federal government's pension policy is the responsibility of the Social Democratic-led Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS). It says to "nd" that migration can represent a break in one's biography in adulthood, which "depending on the time of migration and the previous and further course of one's working life" can lead to incomplete provision and thus to poverty in old age.

“However, older people in Germany who cannot support themselves with their own retirement income are protected by basic security in old age,” said a spokesman. Basic security protects everyone affected by old-age poverty equally, regardless of the causes. The SPD's AG Migration did not respond to a corresponding request by the time of going to press.

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